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A Higher Callingby Ross Tomlin
Her lab first cloned and sequenced the virus, opening up uncharted avenues of science that led to new diagnostic tests and discoveries around the world. It is only fitting that, at a time when infectious disease looms large in the public mindset, Estes will be inducted into the Institute of Medicine (IOM) later this year. The IOM isn't your average honor society. It often takes years of being nominated by IOM members to eventually gain admission, if ever. Like any new member of the IOM, Estes, professor of molecular virology and microbiology, felt deeply honored to join an elite pantheon of medical and scientific leaders. Regarded by many as ranking second only to winning the Nobel Prize, IOM membership is bestowed upon only a handful—roughly 60 per year—out of the nation's multitudes of physicians, researchers, and other health professionals. Later this year, Estes and her fellow initiates will attend a festive ceremony in the nation's capital, where they will be wined, dined, and recognized for their outstanding contributions to medicine and science. But what comes next? The IOM isn't your average honor society. It often takes years of being nominated by IOM members to eventually gain admission, if ever. The organization's approximately 1,600 members are regularly called upon to publish national reports and dispense advice on matters of biomedical science, medicine, and health to the government and agencies that set public policy. They also meet once a year in Washington, D.C. to discuss major crises, vaccine shortages, soaring drug costs, and Medicaid shortfalls. The IOM also works closely with the National Academy of Science, another elite advisory body whose membership partially overlaps that of the IOM. In other words, election to the IOM represents a higher calling. "It is a crowning achievement in one's career," said BCM Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences dean William Brinkley, Ph.D., who was elected to the IOM in 1999. "But you have to work hard once you get in and help guide the leadership in the country on the future of medicine." Brinkley credits his involvement in the IOM for helping him drum up support for the National Institutes of Health as head of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. He joined in a successful campaign to boost federal spending on biomedical research from $14 billion in 1998 to $28 billion in 2003, in part because of contacts made through the IOM. "Once you've made a new discovery of something it becomes infectious." "I had already demonstrated that I could hold my own in the laboratory because we were doing very good work," said Brinkley. "But I was more interested in doing something to give back." BCM OB/Gyn chair Joe Leigh Simpson, M.D., who received IOM enshrinement in 1994, once served on a committee that brainstormed over ways to improve birth outcomes in developing countries. He and a panel of experts looked at the impact of birth defects and infant and maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, and they proposed how genetic services could be offered to those countries. "You have an obligation to transcend your immediate venue and interests and look for the common good," said Simpson. Collaboration, a critical criterion of IOM service, is nothing new to Estes. She currently co-directs BCM's inaugural graduate program in translational biology and molecular medicine and works with faculty members of other departments spanning basic and clinical sciences. "One of the very positive things about Baylor is that everybody really does work well together," said Estes. "We're well poised now because there is local and national interest in translational biology." Twelve other current BCM faculty members belong to the IOM, including Michael E. DeBakey, M.D., and William Butler, M.D., both chancellors emeriti, as well as former College president Ralph Feigin, M.D. Aside from The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, no other medical institution in Texas rivals BCM's level of membership. BCM officials hope that Estes's election represents one of more to come on behalf of the region. Like their colleagues in other central states, medical and scientific leaders in Texas would like to improve recognition of their home turf to the same extent that their East and West coast counterparts enjoy. The relative dearth of Texas representation in national medical organizations like the IOM prompted Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to create The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (TAMEST) in 1997. In doing so, she sought to identify leaders in the scientific and medical communities who might be leveraged for more funding and recognition for the state. "We are in a transitional phase in which the recognition of Baylor at a scientific level is naturally slower to be realized than in places that have been around for 200 years," said Simpson, who points out that a number of IOM members are former faculty members of the college. "Although we may be short in numbers, a number of very important people in the IOM had formative experiences at Baylor." While it is too early to say how IOM membership will ultimately affect Estes's scientific pursuits, her philosophical approach to her work remains unchanged. Years ago, Estes's unprecedented discovery about the mechanisms of the deadly rotavirus, which kills hundreds of thousands of children in third-world countries each year, flew in the face of naysayers who doubted that her research on the gastrointestinal pathogen would produce new findings. "Once you've made a new discovery of something," said the IOM's newest viral authority, "it becomes infectious." |
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13 Current BCM Faculty Members in the IOMYear elected to IOM in parentheses
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Volume 2, Issue 1, Spring 2006 |
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Mysterious outbreaks of the "cruise ship virus," otherwise known as the 
