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t m c » p u l s e | d e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4 7 that have been in the lab over time, that have done so much of the hard work," he said. "It's always nice to have some recognition and validation of all the hard work. It's a team sport and I've had the good fortune of having some out- standing trainees, graduate students, and fellows over the years." As for Srivastava, the third new Institute of Medicine member con- nected to Texas Medical Center, the path to the IOM began right here in the medical center. Srivastava grew up in Galveston, where his father has worked as a professor and scientist at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) for 40 years. He completed his undergraduate work at Rice University and attended medical school at UTMB. Although his current home base is at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, he still serves as the nonresident scholar for biomedical research policy at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. "These experiences served as the foundation for all the work I have done subsequently," said Srivastava. That work includes discovering the gene networks that control the forma- tion of the heart in an embryo, as well as identifying mutations in those genes that cause congenital heart defects in children. "Most recently, we re-deployed embryonic heart muscle gene networks in scar-forming cells of the heart to regenerate new muscle, thereby repair- ing the heart after damage in animal models," said Srivastava. "I am most excited about this latter work since it has the potential to offer hope to the millions of people worldwide suffering from heart disease and may serve as an alternative to heart transplants." For Srivastava, in addition to acknowledging his own achievements in medicine, the IOM election offers the opportunity to recognize those who have worked alongside him in the lab. "There is no higher honor in med- icine and I am honored and humbled to be part of this group of exceptional individuals dedicated to improving health worldwide," he said. "I am also very proud of the former trainees from my lab who are making discoveries in academia and in industry and consider them the most rewarding aspect of my job." like a reporter at a newspaper or on the Internet, can participate and observe something and then report out on it." This process involves inserting the firefly luciferase gene into live cells to make them glow and emit photons. "Using specialized instruments that are very sensitive to those photons, we can map the process that we've linked that firefly luciferase reporter gene to," said Piwnica-Worms. "When engineered into mouse animals with cancer we can observe these dynamic processes of cancer biology in vivo using the bioluminescence imaging approach." The field of molecular imaging represents a change in the way cancer research was approached in the past, because it offers the opportunity to observe how cancer cells interact and function while they are inside the body, as opposed to studying cells in culture, on petri dishes. "We learned a lot from cells in cul- ture, but there are some things you just can't recapitulate with cells in culture on glass or plastic cover slips, because you're not getting the same signals that they would be as if they were in the ani- mal or in the human, ultimately," said Piwnica-Worms. "The whole field of molecular imaging provides that oppor- tunity to study molecular biochemical events in their native context in the whole body." A future goal for Piwnica-Worms and his team is to observe those events in the human body, as his team works toward translating the approaches they have used in cell and animal models into human patients. "One reason I came to MD Anderson a year ago was the oppor- tunity in the collaborative culture here and the huge patient base," said Piwnica-Worms. "We are looking at some specific opportunities in our cancer metabolism and inflammation imaging to try to think about translat- ing these. None are ready for primetime or clinical applications, in vivo, in the near term but we're working towards that." As he makes plans for the future, the IOM election offers Piwnica-Worms the opportunity to look back at how much the field of molecular imaging has grown and acknowledge all who have contributed to his work. "It truly represents decades worth of collaboration and wonderful trainees facing page: guillermina lozano, ph.d., top right: david piwnica-worms, m.d., ph.d. lower right: deepak srivastava, m.d. (credit: chris goodfellow/gladstone institutes) It's a team sport and I've had the good fortune of having some outstand- ing trainees, graduate students, and fellows over the years. — davId PIwnIca-wORMS, M.d., Ph.d. chair of the department of cancer systems imaging at the university of texas md anderson cancer center

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