Inside... - University of Pittsburgh :: MSTP

Profiles in Medicine: Michael Pezzone
An alumnus from the Class of 1994 shares his rewarding experiences as an MSTP student and
now a physician-scientist at Pitt
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The marking of the 25th anniversary
of our MSTP in 2008 allowed many
alumni of our program a walk down
memory lane. “I remember there weren’t
too many students ahead of me in the
program here in Pittsburgh,” reminisces
Dr. Michael Pezzone, now an Associate
Professor of Pharmacology & Chemical
Biology and Medicine in the Division
of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and
Nutrition. Dr. Pezzone graduated from
the program in 1994 and recalls only
three people being in his MSTP class.
He notes how far the program has
come from when he started in 1987,
“I think after so many years of this
program’s existence, you really start
to get a consensus for what is best for
the students.” He specifically noted
how the career development courses
in grant writing and ethics, which were
not in existence while Dr. Pezzone was
a student, have really helped contribute
to the breadth of knowledge that is
imparted to students by the Pittsburgh
MSTP.
After graduating as valedictorian
of his high school class in New Castle,
Pa., Dr. Pezzone studied at Cornell
University, majoring in chemistry and
biology. Dr. Pezzone was drawn to
chemistry mainly because “it isn’t just
a didactic type of science, I really enjoy
the hands-on aspects of it, including lab
work.” At the time, his undergraduate
program was designed with a year of
research which allowed him to work on
his honors thesis of “Structure-activity
relationships in glycosidase inhibitors.”
His research with Dr. Bruce Ganem in
the Department of Chemistry resulted in
a publication as an undergraduate, and
he graduated cum laude in 1987.
The summer prior to medical school
matriculation, Dr. Pezzone did research
at the University of Pittsburgh through
the Mellon Pre-doctoral Fellowship in
Psychiatry, during which time he studied
an autoimmune basis for schizophrenia.
From this research experience he soon
realized “immunology, stress, and
autoimmunity seemed to be areas of
research (he) enjoyed working on.”
Although Dr. Pezzone did not
formally apply to a dual-degree program,
he had heard of combined degree MD-
PhD programs as an undergraduate.
During the late eighties however, there
were not many MD-PhD programs
that were well structured. Dr. Pezzone
elected to hold off joining a MD-PhD
program until he had started medical
school, as the first two years would
be identical whether or not he was in a
combined degree program.
It was fortuitous that Dr. Pezzone
was working in the lab of Dr. Bruce Rabin
when he started medical school, who
was then the director of the MD-PhD
program. Dr. Rabin mentored the predoctoral
Pezzone and encouraged him
to apply to the program. On comparing
the opportunities he had for research at
that time, Dr. Pezzone recalls that “back
then there weren’t too many options
available. For example, I had initially
wanted to do research in cardiology,
but there weren’t too many benchtop
cardiology options available like there
are now. It kind of limited what you could
go into.”
Dr. Pezzone joined the graduate
department of Experimental Pathology,
continuing to work with Dr. Rabin
on a project titled “Characterization
of the Pathways Mediating Stress-
Induced Immune Alterations in the
Rat.” His primary interests were in
identifying central neural pathways and
neurondrocine pathways and how these
modulate immune function. “The nice
thing about pathology is you can do
anything with what you learn in graduate
work. It is a field that encompasses and
is easily applicable to many areas.”
Later, after graduate school, when
he was trying to find a specialty to pick
based on his background and research
interests, “everything seemed to lead to
working with gastrointestinal disease
and irritable bowel syndrome. Internal
medicine in general seemed to have
the most flexibility to it, and having the
ability to see patients was a plus for
me.”
Upon graduation, Dr. Pezzone
continued his training at UPMC, joining
the Internal Medicine Residency
Program in 1994. He was one of the
first to take the Clinical Investigator
Pathway, which combines research
and clinic time for the first two years
of the program. Dr. Pezzone started
working with Dr. William de Groat in the
Department of Pharmacology, who was
studying pelvic visceral pain, and he
found many overlapping mechanisms
and pathways when comparing Dr. de
Groat’s work with the visceral bowel
pain that he was interested in studying.
During his gastroenterology fellowship
at UPMC, Dr. Pezzone continued
studying neuro-immune interactions
and pain and was able to start his
fellowship doing independent research
because of the industry funding he
already had obtained on his own. Less
than two years into his fellowship, Dr.
Pezzone was granted a K award on
neuroimmune mechanisms of visceral
hyperalgesia, and subsequently he was
promoted to a faculty position.
Despite the current funding
environment being less than favorable,
Dr. Pezzone is currently working on
approximately 5 clinical trials, and
spending 40 perccent of his time
working on research and 60 percent of
his time in the clinic. He teaches lectures
see page 6, Pezzone