BOSTON, November 6, 2004 - The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has awarded national honors to three distinguished leaders in academic medicine. Drs. Haile Debas, Michael DeBakey, and Cynthia Kenyon were recognized this evening at the AAMC's Annual Meeting in Boston for their contributions to the fields of medical student education, cardiac surgery, and aging-process research.

Abraham Flexner Award for Distinguished Service to Medical Education

Haile T. Debas, M.D.
Dean Emeritus, School of Medicine
Maurice Galante Distinguished Professor of Surgery
Vice Chancellor Emeritus for Medical Affairs
Executive Director, Global Health Sciences
University of California, San Francisco

Haile T. Debas, M.D., known among colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine as the "education dean," has received the 2004 Abraham Flexner Award for Distinguished Service to Medical Education. Established by the AAMC in 1958, the award recognizes extraordinary individual contributions to medical schools and to the medical education community as a whole.

While serving as dean of the UCSF medical school from 1993-2003, Dr. Debas implemented an educational reorganization that redirected the school's focus to emphasize the teaching of medical students. In addition to developing a new curriculum, he is credited with helping to establish the Academy of Medical Educators (now re-named in his honor) to support and reward teaching. The academy has been so successful that it is now being emulated by other medical schools around the country. Under his direction, the school developed a computer program that manages the medical curriculum by facilitating communication among course designers, tracking course information, and generating reports about the integration of themes, concepts, and educational objectives. To further reinforce the school's priorities, Dr. Debas asked that all gifts from the annual fundraising drive be used exclusively for direct support of the medical school's educational programs. He also increased support for the school's research training efforts in order to educate more physician scientists. Dr. Debas also served as chancellor of UCSF in 1997 and 1998.

A native of Eritrea, Dr. Debas is focusing the next stage of his career on global health issues. He is currently the executive director of UCSF Global Health Sciences, which develops and coordinates global health research and training programs. He also serves on the United Nations Commission for HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa, and on the Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy of the National Academy of Sciences.

After earning a medical degree from McGill University in 1963, Dr. Debas completed his residency at the University of British Columbia. He served UCSF as chair of surgery for six years before becoming dean of the school of medicine. He is internationally recognized for his contributions to the fields of physiology, biochemistry, and gastrointestinal research. The AAMC Council of Deans elected him chair in 2002.

David E. Rogers Award

Michael E. DeBakey, M.D.
Chancellor Emeritus
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas

Michael E. DeBakey, M.D., a pioneer of vascular and cardiac surgery, is the recipient of the 2004 David E. Rogers Award, jointly sponsored by the AAMC and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The award is named for the foundation's former president and recognizes a medical school faculty member who has made major contributions to improving health and health care for Americans.

Dr. DeBakey's discoveries in the field of artery disease have made a substantial contribution to the fight against this leading cause of death. He is credited with the development of the Dacron graft used for replacing diseased arteries in the body. In 1954 he performed the first successful repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm using a Dacron graft. He created the prototype for that graft on his wife's sewing machine. These artificial arteries have been used throughout the world to save millions of lives. This medical innovation also allowed Dr. DeBakey to pioneer a series of related surgical procedures, including the first successful aortocoronary artery bypass using one of the patient's own leg veins to "bypass" a blocked artery in the heart.

In addition to receiving worldwide recognition for his surgical discoveries, Dr. DeBakey is renowned for his efforts to train future physicians worldwide. He has trained foreign colleagues and has consulted with countries across the globe to help build health care systems and cardiovascular surgery programs.

Dr. DeBakey has earned a reputation as a medical statesman. He has served as an advisor to almost every U.S. President over the past 50 years. He is also credited with initiating the movement that led to the establishment of the National Library of Medicine, the world's largest collection of medical archives. Recently, the Veterans Affairs Administration renamed Houston's VA Medical Center in his honor.

After earning a medical degree from Tulane University in 1932, Dr. DeBakey completed residencies at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, University of Strasbourg in France, and University of Heidelberg in Germany. He served as president of Baylor College of Medicine from 1969-1979 and as chancellor from 1978-1996. He currently serves as director of the DeBakey Heart Center and president of the DeBakey Medical Foundation.

Award for Distinguished Research in the Biomedical Sciences

Cynthia Kenyon, Ph.D.
Herbert Boyer Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics
Director, Hillblom Center for the Biology of Aging
University of California, San Francisco

For her research on the biological process of aging, Cynthia Kenyon, Ph.D., has received the 2004 Award for Distinguished Research in the Biomedical Sciences. This award was established by the AAMC in 1981 and is given to medical school faculty members who conduct outstanding clinical or laboratory research.

Dr. Kenyon's 1993 discovery that a single-gene mutation could double the lifespan of the small nematode worm C. elegans sparked an intensive study of the molecular biology of aging. The gene encodes a receptor for insulin and a hormone called "insulin-like growth factor" (IGF-1), demonstrating that aging is regulated hormonally. Dr. Kenyon's findings have now led to the discovery that insulin/IGF-1 signaling controls aging in other organisms, including mammals, and suggest that a related hormone pathway controls human lifespan as well.

Dr. Kenyon's research has caused a major shift in the scientific view of the aging process. Prior to Dr. Kenyon's finding, aging studies relied on comparisons between old cells and young cells. Now researchers can apply genetics to the study of aging, understanding that the process is under genetic control and that it is regulated by a conserved endocrine system that also controls the onset of age-related disease.

These findings may have important disease-prevention implications since the animals with the mutant aging genes have been found to be resistant to several age-related diseases. Dr. Kenyon's research may create a new therapeutic strategy based on the ability to postpone the onset of age-related disease by slowing the aging process itself.

Dr. Kenyon earned her Ph.D. in 1981 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She completed her post-doctoral work at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. She joined the faculty at UCSF in 1986.

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The Association of American Medical Colleges is a not-for-profit association representing all 129 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 68 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and 94 academic and scientific societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC represents 109,000 faculty members, 67,000 medical students, and 104,000 resident physicians. Additional information about the AAMC and U.S. medical schools and teaching hospitals is available at www.aamc.org/newsroom.

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