Miller Gift Brings New Technology to Kellogg

Microscopes advance entire Kellogg research program

A generous gift of $1 million from Leonard “Larry” G. Miller, of Orchard Lake, Michigan, will allow the W.K. Kellogg Eye Center to purchase a high quality confocal laser-scanning microscope and a multiphoton confocal laser-scanning microscope for its research program. Both technologies offer great advantages over traditional optical microscopy, allowing scientists to view tissue and cellular activity at the molecular level at very high resolution.

“Kellogg is building impressive research facilities,” Miller says, “and having the best technology available is important. My hope is that the microscopes will help the eye center continue to recruit top scientists and empower all of the faculty members to do their best research.”

Confocal microscope systems use lasers and a spatial filtering technique to enable the very precise examination of cells, while a multiphoton confocal microscope and corresponding software system allow researchers to image thick tissues such as the cornea and retina.

According to Paul Lichter, M.D., director of the Kellogg Eye Center and chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, the new technology “has the potential to greatly increase the speed with which discoveries are made and scientific advances happen. We are grateful for Mr. Miller’s dedication to vision.”

This is Miller’s second gift to Kellogg; in 2005, he made a leadership gift of $1 million toward Kellogg’s expansion effort. Kellogg Eye Center will name its new comprehensive ophthalmology clinic for Miller to recognize his commitment to visual science at Michigan.

Miller, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering from the University of Michigan, was a founding partner of Molmec Inc., a major supplier of molded plastic components for the automotive industry. The company, located in Walled Lake, Michigan, manufactured trim pieces, door handles, fasteners, fans and shrouds, as well as carburetors and timing gears for small engines. When the company was sold in 1997, it had grown to 1,000 employees and five manufacturing plants in Michigan.

“Eyesight is such a critical part of our lives,” Miller says. “I’m pleased to be able to make research possible — and better.” His generosity is the result of gratitude for what he calls the “lucky coincidence” of meeting Lichter just after Miller developed double vision, and his subsequent successful treatment.

Born in Birmingham, Michigan, Miller served as mayor of Orchard Lake in 1988 and later on the village planning commission. He also served on the board of the Detroit chapter of the Society of Plastics Engineers and on advisory committees at Eastern Michigan University and Ferris State University. Miller’s parents and sister also graduated from the U-M.
—COMPILED BY RICK KRUPINSKI

Harris Professorship Will Intensify U-M Alzheimer’s Research

When Charles “Bucky” Harris died of Alzheimer’s disease in 1997, his wife, Patti, knew what she had to do: join the search for a cure by supporting the frontlines of research. Long a benefactor of such research at the University of Michigan, Patti Bugas Harris, of Grass Lake, Michigan, and Billings, Montana, is establishing the Bucky and Patti Harris Research Professorship in the Department of Neurology to intensify research efforts.

“I think anybody who has a spouse with this disease is just overwhelmed with helplessness,” Harris says. “There’s nothing you can do. The progress is steady. The only way I came to gain a sense of power over my helplessness was to learn as much as I could about the disease.” Bucky and Patti Harris became deeply involved with Alzheimer’s treatment and research at the U-M after his diagnosis in 1991.

Owner and CEO of Harris-McBurney, a telecommunications and public utilities service company, Bucky Harris also owned a working cattle ranch outside Billings that he and Patti bought in 1988. Patti’s father, John Bugas, was born and raised in Wyoming, and he instilled in all family members a love of the west and cattle ranching. After Bucky Harris died, Patti not only took over the helm of the company and the cattle ranch, she also helped raise funds to build Towsley Village, a center of care for people with Alzheimer’s and other forms of memory loss, in Chelsea, Michigan.

Working with C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital’s Child and Family Life Program, Harris also hosts sick children at her Michigan farm and Montana ranch — one more way of sustaining the legacy of love and appreciation for the outdoors that she shared with her late husband.

“Alzheimer’s research is making great progress,” she says. “I’m convinced I’ll see the day when detecting the risk of developing it and preventing its progress will be a reality.”
—WH

Dedrick Gift Sparks Collaboration

Alumna and retired faculty member Dale Dedrick, M.D. (Residency 1987), has made a gift to the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery that will encourage clinical research collaboration with the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the Division of Rheumatology in the Department of Internal Medicine. Dedrick’s gift also has leveraged additional support to advance research in musculoskeletal medicine: Each unit will provide matching funds when participating in research projects.

Only the sixth woman to complete the Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Program, Dedrick, who lives in Ann Arbor, served on the department’s faculty until the onset of lupus cut short her career and she retired in 1992. Her passion for orthopaedic research hasn’t diminished, and she is especially interested in research focused on determining the best rehabilitation options for older women with both arthritis and hip replacements.
—RK

Carls Foundation Supports Children’s Vision

A $2 million grant from the Detroit-based Carls Foundation to Michigan’s W.K. Kellogg Eye Center will support the pediatric ophthalmology clinic in the center’s expanded facilities, due to open in 2010.

Children with vision problems come from throughout Michigan and around the world to see pediatric ophthalmologists at Kellogg. Those physicians will be able to care for even more young patients in the new 4,000-square-foot Carls Foundation Pediatric Ophthalmology Clinic.

The grant furthers the mission of the Carls Foundation, founded in 1961 by Detroit industrialist William Carls and his wife, Marie, who were dedicated to ensuring children receive the best possible medical care. “One of our main goals is to help make children’s lives better, and we understand how important it is to correct a child’s vision problems as early as possible,” says Elizabeth A. Stieg, executive director of the Carls Foundation.

Scientific breakthroughs were important to William and Marie Carls. They had lost a child in infancy and became interested in helping to advance pediatric medicine, Stieg says. An engineer by training, William Carls was particularly interested in health care building projects and technology. He took an active role in directing the grants of the foundation until his death in 1995.

The foundation has been a generous contributor to children’s health at Michigan, including support for the new C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and Women’s Hospital, opening in 2012. The foundation has also supported a diagnostic and treatment program for children at risk for profound hearing loss, as well as research in the area of jaw-related birth defects.
—RK

Schlafer Foundation Establishes Pediatric Research Professorship

The Shirley K. Schlafer Foundation, of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, is establishing the Edith S. Briskin/Shirley K. Schlafer Foundation Research Professorship in Pediatrics through a $1 million gift to the Medical School.

The foundation, started by Briskin’s mother, Shirley Schlafer, in 1980, also makes grants to early-career pediatric oncology investigators at the U-M and continues Schlafer’s legacy of generosity to causes such as medical research and health care, education, and the arts. According to Valerie Castle, M.D., chair of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, “Edie’s support of young researchers has jump-started their research programs, enabling them to complete critical experiments that led to successful grant applications now funded by the NIH and national foundations.”

Briskin, who resides in Bloomfield Hills and is the foundation’s chair, has long been active in her community and the arts. She has served on the Health System’s fund-raising campaign committee, and currently serves on the advisory board of the Taubman Medical Research Institute at the University of Michigan.
—RK

Professorships Recently Inaugurated

On November 24, 2008, the Department of Dermatology installed four faculty members to endowed professorships: Gary J. Fisher, Ph.D., as the Harry Helfman Professor of Molecular Dermatology, through funding from the Harry Helfman Dermatological Research Fund; Adrzej A. Dlugosz, M.D., as the Poth Professor of Cutaneous Oncology, through funding generated from the Duncan O. and Ella Poth Professorship established in 1994; Charles N. Ellis (M.D. 1977, Residency 1981), as the William B. Taylor Professor of Clinical Dermatology, through the generosity of numerous benefactors, faculty and alumni; and James T. Elder, M.D., Ph.D., as the Kirk D. Wuepper Professor of Molecular Genetic Dermatology, through a generous commitment from the family of Kirk D. Wuepper (M.D. 1963).

The Stuart B. Padnos Professorship in Breast Cancer Research was established through a gift from the Stuart and Barbara Padnos Foundation to support a faculty member with outstanding credentials as an educator and investigator in breast cancer research. The professorship is named for Stuart Padnos, a senior executive vice president of the Holland, Michigan-based Louis Padnos Iron and Metal Company. Daniel F. Hayes, M.D., a professor of internal medicine and clinical director of the Breast Oncology Program, was installed as the first Padnos Professor December 4, 2008.

A U-M physician was honored for her clinical expertise and contributions to the Health System and the field of radiology with the inauguration of the Saroja Adusumilli Collegiate Professorship in Radiology December 10, 2008. Adusumilli (Residency 2000), a clinical assistant professor of radiology, died from injuries sustained in an automobile accident March 3, 2007. A member of the faculty since September 2002, she was a well-respected authority on magnetic resonance imaging. Her colleague, Professor of Radiology Richard H. Cohan, M.D., is the first recipient of the Adusumilli Professorship.

The Frederick G.L. Huetwell Research Professorship in Cardiovascular Medicine honors a benefactor who funded multiple professorships and research funds in the Medical School. Born with cerebral palsy, Huetwell, who died in 1994, faced his disability with cheerful determination and directed his support to the Medical School of the university he loved. Final distributions from his estate established the last two of six professorships, including the Huetwell Research Professorship in Cardiovascular Medicine. An internationally recognized expert in cardiac electrophysiology, Hakan Oral, M.D., became the first Huetwell Research Professor December 15, 2008.

Recognizing his numerous contributions as a U-M gastroenterologist and hepatologist, the Department of Internal Medicine established the Keith S. Henley, M.D., Collegiate Professorship in Gastroenterology through gifts from Henley, other benefactors and departmental funding. The professorship supports a faculty member who advances research and/or patient care within the Division of Gastroenterology. Jorge A. Marrero, M.D., an associate professor of internal medicine, was installed as the first Henley Professor during a February 11 ceremony.
—KB