The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) council has elected 401 members as fellows. These individuals will be recognized in February for their contributions to science and technology at the fellows forum during the AAAS annual meeting in San Jose, California.

The ASA members elected as fellows to the AAAS Section on Statistics are the following:

• Susmita Datta, University of Louisville
• Mark Andrew Espeland, Wake Forest University School of Medicine
• Robert Jackson Hardy, University of Texas School of Public Health
• William Q. Meeker Jr., Iowa State University
• Dudley L. Poston, Texas A&M University
• Paula Karen Roberson, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
• John P. Sall, SAS Institute
• James J. Schlesselman, University of Pittsburgh
• Stephanie Shipp, Virginia Tech University
• Clifford Spiegelman, Texas A&M University

For more information, visit AAAS news.

Christine E. McLaren, professor in the department of epidemiology at the University of California, Irvine, has received a $2.04 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to study genetic modifiers of iron status in hemochromatosis, a hereditary disease in which affected persons suffer excessive dietary iron absorption.

Some patients accumulate toxic levels of iron causing damage to multiple organs and complications such as liver cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, heart failure, diabetes, arthritis, and impotence. Others have less severe iron overload and do not experience such disease manifestations.

To understand the reasons for this variability in disease expression better, McLaren and colleagues will examine genetic factors in the susceptibility or resistance to iron overload in patients with hemochromatosis across a wide range of geographic areas.

A Fellow of the ASA and member of the ASA Committee on Professional Ethics, McLaren is a program leader and member of the Biostatistics Shared Resource at the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center in Orange, CA. She is principal investigator for the grant and will work with co-principal investigator Gordon McLaren, professor of hematology and oncology at the University of California, Irvine and staff physician at the Veterans Affairs Long Beach Healthcare System. They will lead a multidisciplinary team of investigators at eight research institutions in the United States, Canada, and Australia.

Approximately 1 million people in the United States are at risk for development of iron overload, attributable primarily to the genetic disorder known as hemochromatosis. Once considered a rare disease, hemochromatosis is now recognized as one of the most common inherited disorders, occurring in approximately 5 persons per 1,000 in populations of northern European descent.

Most patients with hereditary hemochromatosis carry two copies of a specific variant of the hemochromatosis gene. Persons affected suffer from an inability to limit absorption of dietary iron, leading to increased body iron stores. Some, but not all, patients with this variant develop severe iron overload. It is important to identify persons at risk, because effective iron-removal treatment is available and beginning such therapy before iron overload becomes advanced can prevent disease complications.

The reasons for the variability in severity among persons who carry the gene are not known. The purpose of this research is to identify other inherited traits that may interact to cause more severe disease in certain patients.

This NIH award will establish a U.S. consortium with international partners to collect information from a broad group of hemochromatosis patients and subjects enrolled in screening studies and clinical practice. The grant also permits the University of California, Irvine to provide collaborative awards to investigators at the London Health Sciences Centre in Ontario, Canada; the Southern Iron Disorders Center in Birmingham, Alabama; Rochester General Hospital in Rochester, NY; University of Utah; University of Washington; University of Melbourne, Australia; and Queensland Institute of Medical Research/Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane, Australia.

The three-year, multi-center project will provide insight into possible genetic contributions to susceptibility or resistance to iron overload. Results will help researchers understand the significant variation in iron loading in different individuals with this disorder and the relationship to clinical manifestations. This could have important clinical applications, including the ability to identify young hemochromatosis patients at risk for potentially severe iron overload later in life, thereby informing recommendations regarding initiation of iron-removal therapy and long-term follow-up of iron stores and related manifestations. This approach may ultimately lead to development of innovative prevention and treatment strategies tailored to the individual.

ASA Past President Nathaniel Schenker has been named deputy director of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). In announcing the news, Charles Rothwell, NCHS director, said Schenker has been instrumental in developing collaborative statistical relationships within NCHS and with other federal statistical agencies. Schenker currently is the agency’s associate director for research and methodology. He joined NCHS after serving in several capacities in the biostatistics departments in UCLA’s School of Public Health and School of Medicine. Schenker will assume his new role in February. Visit the NCHS website for details.

Hugo Blackwell (David Blackwell’s son) displays David Blackwell’s National Medal of Science with ASA Past President Nathaniel Schenker.

David Blackwell was posthumously awarded the National Medal of Science during a ceremony at the White House November 20. His son, Hugo Blackwell, and granddaughter, Kasheen Blackwell, accepted the award.