Illinois Medicine

Michael Reese Hospital gone, Impact Lives On Legacy of community service and social justice continues through College of Medicine professorships of Illinois at Chicago, to inquire about a similar trial at the university for his patient. Levinson's patient was the first to receive a life-changing bone marrow transplant for sickle cell disease outside of the National Institutes of Health. His patient's and the program's success inspired Levinson to become one of the driving forces behind a $1 million commitment from the Michael Reese Research and Education Foundation that will support four endowed professorships in the College of Medicine. "Michael Reese Hospital is gone, but through the foundation its legacy lives on," says Levinson, a member of the foundation's board. "These professorships represent the best of what Michael Reese had to offer in its day, now embodied at the University of Illinois." Since its creation in 1991, the Michael Reese Foundation has funded clinical trials as well as projects like cancer screening for underserved women, an HIV treatment clinic and a scholarship program for Latino medical students at the College of Medicine. The foundation has been a natural partner for the college, whose mission also includes a commitment to diversity in medical education and to translating medical research into clinical practice. "Our mission is to maintain the legacy of Michael Reese by supporting research, medical education and community service," says board member Ronald Albrecht '59, MD '61, Res '64, a professor emeritus in anesthesiology. Two of the Reese recipients were named at an investiture in May: Rondelli, for hematology, and Gail Prins, PhD, a renowned researcher in urology. Two additional professorships, in anesthesiology and in medical education, will be awarded in the next two years. Prins, a professor of urology and director of the Andrology Laboratory, began her career on faculty at Michael Reese. Her studies on prostate cancer have shown a link between early exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals and cancer; the groundbreaking findings have contributed to the ban and declining use of bisphenol A, or BPA, in consumer products. Prins also established the first in vitro fertilization laboratory in the Midwest in 1983 and, with the team at Michael Reese Hospital, obtained the first IVF babies in the state. "To bookend [my career] with a professorship that will always bear the Michael Reese name is an honor for me," she says. "I wear that badge so proudly. The funds will support what I do in the laboratory and provide an opportunity for trainees to do experiments for which we might not otherwise have the funds." Rondelli, too, is thrilled to be continuing the legacy of Michael Reese, which was once a leader in sickle cell disease treatment. He and his team already have transplanted five sickle cell patients who had a fully compatible sibling, avoiding the traditional use of chemotherapy. The challenge in the next year will be to offer a similar stem cell transplant using not fully compatible donors, which would allow almost any patient in need of transplant to have a chance of cure. "Through this donation, our research can keep going," he says. "But it's not just a matter of money; it's all about people." — Kathryn Tormey 50 D uring its 127-year history serving Chicago patients, Michael Reese Hospital grew to become one of the nation's foremost medical research institutions. Although the hospital closed in 2009, its commitment to excellence is living on at the College of Medicine. The organizational connections date back. Take the story of one Chicago patient struggling with sickle cell disease. Thanks to a new treatment being pioneered at the University of Illinois Bone and Marrow Transplant program, the patient — once confined to a hospital bed about half of the time — now holds a job and is raising her daughter. But the 2012 transplant wasn't the first time she had received cuttingedge care for her illness. As a child, she was a patient at Michael Reese Hospital, which was a leader in sickle cell disease treatment and research. Several years ago, her longtime physician, Dennis Levinson, MD, saw an article about a new type of transplant that poses less risk to patients by omitting chemotherapy as preparation. He contacted Damiano Rondelli, MD, a professor of medicine and director of the Blood Marrow Transplant Program at the University illinois medicine | 35

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