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PITTMEDUNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF MEDICINE MAGAZINE, SUMMER 2007 (MAY/JUNE/JULY)VOL. 9, ISSUE 2DEPARTMENTSOF NOTE 3Pancreatic cancer’s genetic helper.Stress and a sweet tooth.Rickets may be back.CLOSER 7At 17, it was about time she gota research gig at Cal Tech.INVESTIGATIONS 8Ubiquitin—it’s everywhere!What do you feed trauma patientswho can’t feed themselves?MATCH RESULTS 33Coming to a hospital near you.ATTENDING 34Science and murder.ALUMNI NEWS 36David Sherwood has seensome real cliffhangers.A cancer drug that kills cancer too fast.LAST CALL 40Frankenstein’s 190th birthday.18FEATURES“Plain People,” Complex Cures 12The Amish and Mennonites are highly susceptible to inherited metabolicdisorders. At the Clinic for Special Children near Lancaster, Pa., doctorsrefer all patients in need of curative transplants to Pitt.COVER STORY/PHOTO-ESSAY BY CAMI MESATEXT BY JOE MIKSCHCONTRIBUTORSAfter high school, CAMI MESA [“‘Plain People,’ Complex Cures”] was less than certain abouther career path. A native of Colombia living in California, she enrolled in the Art Center College ofDesign in Pasadena. There, she picked up a camera and became enchanted: “I love to play with mycomposition, how it is working in the frame of my camera and how the lighting is hitting the subject.But more than anything, I try to find a connection between the person and myself.” Mesa saysher trip to Amish Country for Pitt Med let her exercise what she calls her strength—portraiture. Andshe relished the human side of the assignment. “I wasn’t sure what to expect, but at the end of theday, all I could feel was an incredible community that comes together for each other,” she says.MELINDA WENNER [“Telltale Hearts, and Veins”] is a Brooklyn-residing native of Denmark whoearned a bachelor’s degree in music composition from the University of Michigan. With that diplomain hand, she embarked on a writing career and has since seen her work published in ScientificAmerican Mind, SEED, The Boston Globe, and The Scientist. (Oh, she also has a bachelor’s degreein cell and molecular biology from Michigan and a master’s degree from New York University’s science,health, and environmental reporting program.) While working on “Telltale Hearts,” Wennersays she found herself moved by the patients’ stories: “[They] were inspiring. They have incrediblypositive outlooks on life.”COVERRCommunities that normally eschew technology turn to transplants to cure their children.(Cover: Cami Mesa © 2007.)The Modern Deathbed 18The modern death ritual centers around the pounding of chests andother heroic measures. But that’s not what we say we want. Where dodoctors fall short of offering “the good death”?BY ELAINE VITONEDefining Moments 24Four Class of ’62 standouts look back on 45 years of discovery.INTERVIEW BY SHARON TREGASKISTelltale Hearts, and Veins 28Synthetic cardiac tissue is a design conundrum, but Pitt bioengineersare attracting attention with their prospective solutions.BY MELINDA WENNER