VAINUTIS VAITKEVICIUS, MD, professor of internal medicine and Karmanos Cancer Institute interim president and chief executive officer has been honored with mastership status by the American College of Physicians. This honor has been awarded to only nine doctors in Michigan history.

MICHAEL HERZOG, MD, resident in urology, received first prize for best poster at the Michigan Prostate Cancer Research Colloquium. Dr. Herzog’s poster was No. 1 out of 21 posters. His work addressed “Inhibition of Matrix Metalloproteinase Activity Reduces Prostate Tumor Cell Profileration, Osteoclast Recruitment and Bone Degradation in Hu Bone.” Co-authors were Drs. Jeffrey Nemeth, Rafid Yousif, Ashok Reddy and Michael Cher.

NAVEED ASLAM, MD, a third-year resident in internal medicine at Sinai-Grace Hospital, was among the top 10 winners in the research category at the recent American College of Physicians national meeting in Atlanta. His poster presentation was on “Down- Regulation of NFkB in Prostate Cancer Cells by Ciprofloxacin.”

DONALD AUSTIN, MD, professor of neurological surgery, is being honored by the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute and WSU with the establishment of the Dr. Donald C. and Dale Austin Endowed Chair in the Department of Neurological Surgery.

ABDELKRIM (KARIM) HMADCHA, PhD, a post-doctoral fellow in Dr. Jeffrey Loeb’s lab, is this year’s recipient of the prestigious Osserman/Sosin/McClure Fellowship from the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of American. The $50,000 award was granted for his prject titled “Regulation of Neuregulin Expression at the Neuromuscular Junction.”

JEROME HORWITZ, PhD, professor of internal medicine who first discovered the AIDS drug AZT, was honored as a Detroit News “Michiganian of the Year.”

ARTHUR PORTER, MD, professor of radiation oncology and CEO of the Detroit Medical Center, was honored as a Detroit News “Michiganian of the Year.”