Names In The News

Appointments

Dr. Richard L. Huganir, an expert on the cellular communication that underlies learning and memory, has been named director of the neuroscience department at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Huganir, whose appointment was announced this week, becomes the second director in the department's 25-year history. He replaces Dr. Solomon Snyder, who plans to remain with the faculty and continue his research into brain receptors.

"Sol Snyder is an amazing guy, and he's been a real mentor to me," said Huganir, 52, who has been with the department for 18 years. "It's an honor to take over from him, but I'm also looking forwarded to expanding the department and broadening it."

Dr. Edward D. Miller, dean and chief executive of Johns Hopkins Medicine, said in a statement that Huganir "has the vision to take the department into what is quickly becoming a new Golden Age of neuroscience."

Huganir is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has been a professor of neuroscience since 1993. He receives funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which supports 300 scientists nationwide.

His research also has implications for the treatment of neurologic diseases such as Lou Gehrig's disease, stroke and dementia, according to a Hopkins spokeswoman.

Dr. David Sigman has been named urologist-in-chief for the department of urology at Northwest Hospital Center, making him responsible for overseeing the quality of its urologic care. "I want to maintain the strong clinical acumen and commitment" he said, while building on provision of treatments such as laparoscopic surgery for urologic cancer and novel procedures for kidney stone disease.

A partner with Chesapeake Urology Associates, Sigman has been affiliated with Northwest Hospital for seven years. He is a member of the hospital's medical executive committee and member of the Mid-Atlantic Section: American Urological Association.

Grants

Dr. Robert Conley, professor of psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, will be principal investigator in new federally funded research into the treatment of people with serious mental illnesses who also have substance abuse problems.

The National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Drug Abuse has awarded a $13 million grant for the research to the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, which is funded and governed by the school's psychiatry department and the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Conley is chief of treatment research at the center.

"Individuals with mental illness and addiction issues comprise at least half of the patients in most mental health treatment facilities," Conley said. "This combination increases the risk of frequent psychiatric relapses, poor medication compliance, violence, suicide" and other problems.

To be conducted in conjunction with staff at Spring Grove Hospital Center and the state Health Department, the work will draw upon the fields of functional brain imaging, substance abuse treatment, drug development and pharmacology.

"We want to understand why people are more vulnerable to one condition if they have the other," Conley said.