Two faculty members are among 65 people elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (IOM), a prestigious group for researchers in the medical sciences, health care and public health.
With their election, Dr. Howard Markel, a physician, medical educator and historian of medicine, and Dr. Juanita Merchant, a professor of internal medicine and molecular and integrative physiology, have achieved one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine, says Medical School Dean James Woolliscroft.
“Those elected to the IOM have the opportunity to make a tremendous impact on the health of our country,” Woolliscroft says. “It’s an honor for two worthy faculty members and a recognition of the excellence that abounds at Michigan.”
Markel is the George E. Wantz Distinguished Professor of the History of Medicine, director of the Center for the History of Medicine, and professor of pediatrics and communicable diseases, history, psychiatry, and health management and policy. He is a prolific author and contributor to numerous scholarly and popular publications. His work examines the parallels between medical history and modern medicine, covering such topics as diverse as pandemic influenza preparedness planning; politics and medicine; and immigration, disease and public health.
His research, essays and commentaries extract lessons that inform contemporary public health policymaking and planning efforts. Most recently, Markel’s collaborative study with the Global Migration and Quarantine division of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the 1918-19 influenza pandemic played a major role in shaping the policies of the federal government, nations around the globe, and the World Health Organization as they consider how to mitigate future pandemics.
Merchant, professor of internal medicine and of molecular and integrative physiology at the Medical School, focuses her research on the molecular mechanisms underlying normal and cancerous epithelial cell growth in the luminal gastrointestinal tract. Her recent studies involve the use of animal and cell culture models to dissect the pathways through which bacterial colonization leads to ulcer development and subsequently cancer.
Ongoing projects in Merchant’s laboratory have revealed that outer membrane proteins stimulate the gastrin and interleukin-8 promoters, and may be a general mechanism by which bacterial proteins activate mammalian cell signaling pathways and gene expression.
In particular, Merchant, a member of the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center, has found that bacterial overgrowth and specific cytokines mimic the pathology observed with Helicobacter pylori infection in mice, suggesting that chronic atrophic gastritis is not a host response specific to this organism, but is the general response of the stomach to bacterial colonization.
IOM is unique for its structure as both an honorific membership organization and an advisory organization on matters of health and science policy. It has become recognized as a national resource for independent, scientifically informed analyses and recommendations on health issues.
Membership in the IOM is extended to those who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievements and commitment to service. Members devote a significant amount of volunteer time as members of the IOM study committees.
