School Notes: School of Medicine
July/August 2019

Yale New Haven Hospital to build advanced neurosciences center

Yale New Haven Hospital has announced the launch of a major health-care investment on its Saint Raphael campus in New Haven. The proposed $838 million neurosciences center, one of the largest projects of its kind in state history, features 204 inpatient beds in a 505,000-square-foot building. “The impact this new facility will have on patient care is enormous,” said Robert J. Alpern, Yale School of Medicine’s dean and Ensign Professor of Medicine. The new center will also provide a valuable link to further the school’s neuroscience research in such areas as stroke, Parkinson’s disease, and alternatives to opioid use for pain, to name just a few. “Yale really stands out nationwide in the neurosciences,” Alpern noted. “It is number one in the country in National Institutes of Health funding for neuroscience research.” The building is slated to open in 2024.

Cell biologist named to Royal Society

James Rothman, Sterling Professor of Cell Biology and department chair, has been named to the prestigious Royal Society. This honor is bestowed only to distinguished United Kingdom scientists, who are called fellows, and a select few researchers from outside the UK and commonwealth, called foreign members. Rothman, a Nobel laureate, was one of ten newly elected foreign members, out of a total of 51 scientists inducted this year. In 2013, Rothman shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for his work describing how molecular messages are transmitted inside and outside of our cells. He has received numerous other awards and honors, including the 2010 Kavli Prize for Neuroscience, and is a member of the National Academy of Science. There are approximately 1,600 fellows and foreign members of the Royal Society, including around 80 Nobel laureates.