Five Questions With: Dr. Jack A. Elias

DR. JACK A. ELIAS is dean of medicine and biological sciences at The Warren Alpert School of Medicine of Brown University. / COURTESY SCOTT KINGSLEY
DR. JACK A. ELIAS is dean of medicine and biological sciences at The Warren Alpert School of Medicine of Brown University. / COURTESY SCOTT KINGSLEY

Dr. Jack A. Elias is dean of medicine and biological sciences, the Frank L. Day professor of biology and professor of medicine at The Warren Alpert School of Medicine of Brown University. In a professional career spanning more than 30 years, Elias has cared for patients with a wide variety of lung ailments; as an immunobiologist, he has trained scores of young researchers, published more than 230 original peer-reviewed research papers and holds several patents, with more pending.

Elias spoke recently with Providence Business News about the recent $27 million gift from The Warren Alpert Foundation and how it will enable Brown’s M.D./Ph.D. program to expand.

PBN: The gift from The Warren Alpert Foundation will allow Brown to establish an endowment for its program for training M.D./Ph.D. students pursuing careers as “physician-scientists.” What is a “physician-scientist” and why do we need more of them? Are biomedical advancements driving that need?

ELIAS: A physician-scientist is a person with the training to provide not only excellent clinical care, but also to conduct the basic and applied research that can make care better, for instance by revealing fundamental new knowledge about a disease. They can see patients in the clinic, understand the challenges of the diseases they study and then transfer those insights to work in their labs. After all, medicine isn’t just about delivering the best therapies; it’s also about making the best we can do much better. That comes from research. Nothing is more frustrating as a physician than giving people the same treatment we’ve been giving for the last 30 years, knowing that it’s not likely to help much but doing so anyway because it’s still all we can do.

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PBN: Do other medical schools see this as a need or is Brown among the few such institutions that do? Why is Brown well positioned to take on this program expansion?

ELIAS: The Alpert Medical School’s top peers also have M.D./Ph.D. programs, but few of them have the culture of collaboration and the accessible biomedical community that Brown can offer. Research and education at Brown is characterized by following one’s curiosity wherever it may lead, even if it crosses traditional academic boundaries. New collaborations among faculty and students form all the time here in response to important research questions. Across our hospitals and academic departments, it’s never difficult to meet the right people. Neuroscientists work with engineers and biologists join forces with computer scientists. Infectious-disease physicians collaborate with chemists and radiologists team up with biostatisticians. In the Brown Institute for Translational Science, we’re encouraging not only Brown’s traditionally open collaboration, but also an integrated team-science approach to address the whole continuum between basic research capabilities and population health needs.

PBN: How large is the current cohort of M.D./Ph.D. students and how large a cohort do you anticipate enrolling each year? How soon will the program expand?

ELIAS: There have been two to three students in the program each year. We’ve also only made the program available in the past to current PLME [Brown’s Program in Liberal Medical Education, which combines undergraduate studies and professional studies in medicine into a single eight-year program] or medical students, which meant that no one could apply to Brown specifically to be in this track. With the new gift and the endowment that it creates, we’ll be able to substantially expand the program availability, student support and admissions paths to the program. These changes will take effect in the 2017-18 school year.

PBN: Does the $27 million gift come with directives or recommendations regarding areas of research? If so, what are they, and if not, will you recommend specific research topics?

ELIAS: The Warren Alpert Foundation has been a fantastic partner and supporter of biomedical research and teaching here at Brown. One of the many reasons for that is that the foundation enhances the capabilities and resources of the whole school, not just efforts involving one disease or another. The gift does not come with any directives regarding specific areas of research.

Within our desire to pursue excellence in research and education across all of academic medicine, however, we do have a strategic plan in place that will put particular emphasis around areas of strength and urgency where we want to model a team-science approach to translating research into therapies. These areas are aging; genetics, genomics and personalized medicine; maternal and child health and development; musculoskeletal and motion sciences; brain science and respiratory disease. To do that, we have created new entities in the school, including the Brown Institute for Translational Science and the Brown Center for Biomedical Informatics. We also have the Brown Institute for Brain Science.

PBN: What skills, attributes and expertise will you seek in the person named to the endowed professorship in the Brown Institute for Translational Science?

ELIAS: The selected individual will be an established scientist with an accomplished research program investigating the pathogenesis of important diseases. He or she will be someone who is working to develop new insights that will lead to new therapies for important disorders.

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