Emergency Medicine ECRIP Research Fellowship 2007-2009

The Emergency Medicine Research Fellowship is a collaborative educational effort between the Department of Emergency Medicine at North Shore University Hospital and the NIH-funded General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research at North Shore-LIJ Health System.  The GCRC is a state of the art facility and is home to internationally renowned researchers from a wide variety of scientific and medical backgrounds.  The research fellowship provides the opportunity for mentorship by federally funded scientists whose work bridges the gap between basic science discoveries and clinical research.  The fellowship’s strength is in the ability to conduct translational research, which is designed to make the latest advances in the laboratory available to patients in a clinical setting.  The research fellowship is a comprehensive educational program in a substantial research infrastructure supporting both clinical and basic science. The program is open to graduates of Emergency Medicine Residency programs who are board prepared in Emergency Medicine.

ECRIP Research Fellowship 2007-2009
Director: Andrew Sama, MD
Mentor:  Kevin J. Tracey, MD
Research Fellow:  Richard Goldstein, MD

Richard Goldstein, MD

Richard Goldstein, MD was the first Emergency Medicine Research Fellow who worked under the auspices of Kevin J Tracey, MD and studied the neuromodulation of the immune system through the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway.  He focused his research efforts on acetylcholine, the principal neurotransmitter of the vagus nerve, and other cholinergic agonists.  Drs. Tracey and Goldstein sought to examine the underlying cytokine response ex vivo to vagus nerve tone as well as during a variety of inflammatory conditions including severe sepsis, pneumonia, rheumatoid arthritis, and Crohn’s disease. Other areas of scientific exploration include myocardial, cerebral, and peripheral ischemia as well as the measuring of cytokines as potential markers of these disease states. 

Richard Goldstein, MD

Dr. Goldstein has decided to continue his research efforts after his two-year tenure as an Emergency Medicine Research Fellow by obtaining an Empire Clinical Research Investigator Program (ECRIP) Grant, which began in April 2007.  This grant will fund Dr. Goldstein’s research efforts until April 2009, allowing him to continue his study of sepsis, specifically cholinergic agonists and vagal nerve stimulation as well as cytokine responses (HMGB1, TNF, etc.). Dr. Goldstein is also studying the effects of certain cytokine levels in patients with coronary disease, and he is interested in studying certain protein levels of patients with severe sepsis.

Dr. Goldstein’s research fellowship has produced several journal articles and abstracts, including:

• RS Goldstein, M Gallowitsch-Puerta, L Yang, M Rosas-Ballina, J Huston, CJ Czura, DC Lee, MF Ward, AN Bruchfeld, H Wang, ML Lesser, AL Church, AH Litroff, AE Sama, KJ Tracey.  Elevated High Mobility Group Box-1 (HMGB1) Levels in Patients with Cerebral and Myocardial Ischemia. Shock. 2006; 25 (6):571-574.
• Goldstein RS, Bruchfeld AN, Yang L, Qureshi AR, Gallowitsch-Puerta M, Patel NB, Huston BJ, Chavan S, Gregersen PK, Sloan RP, Sama AE, Tracey KJ. Cholinergic Anti-Inflammatory Pathway Activity and High Mobility Group Box-1 (HMGB1) Serum Levels in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Molecular Medicine March-April 2007.
• Huston JM, Gallowitsche-Puerta M, Ochani M, Ochani K, Yuan R, Rosas-Ballina M, Ashok M, Goldstein RS, Chavan S, Pavlov V, Metz CN, Yang H, Czura CJ, Wang H, Tracey KJ.  Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation reduced serum high mobility group box 1 levels and improves survival in murine sepsis. Critical Care Medicine. 2007; 35 (12): 2762-2768.
• Goldstein RS. High mobility group box-1 protein as a tumor necrosis factor-independent therapeutic target in rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Res Ther. 2008;10(3):111.
• Parrish WR, Rosas-Ballina M, Gallowitsch-Puerta M, Ochani M, Ochani K, Hudson LQ, Lin X, Patel N, Johnson SM, Chavan S, Goldstein R, Czura CJ, Miller EJ, Al-Abed Y, Tracey KJ, Pavlov VA. Modulation of TNF Release by Choline Requires Alpha7 Subunit Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor-Mediated Signaling. Mol Med. 2008; Jun 26. [Epub ahead of print].

Richard Goldstein, MD is pictured above presenting the abstract entitled “Cholinergic Agonists Inhibit LPS Induced Whole Blood TNF Release Ex Vivo in Patients with Severe Sepsis: A Pilot Study” at the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Annual Meeting held in Chicago, IL May 16-20 2007.

Dr. Goldstein has also presented his work at several national conferences including the Annual Conference for the American Federation for Medical Research, the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine 2007 Annual Meeting, and the 30th Annual Shock Society Meeting.  In 2006, he received the Henry Christian Award for his abstract entitled, “Vagus Nerve Activity and Cytokine Responsiveness in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis.

ECRIP Research Fellowship  2008 - 2010
Director: Andrew Sama, MD
Mentor:  Jason Z. D’Amore, MD
Research Fellow: Tse Chiang Lau, MD

Jason Z. D’Amore, MD

Dr. D’Amore was awarded funding from the New York State Department of Health to mentor another ECRIP Research Fellow. The purpose of the fellowship is to apply translational research to augment various clinical issues that are ever present in the Emergency Department. Dr. Lau, the ECRIP Research Fellow from July 2008-July 2010, and Dr. D’Amore have recently begun translational research involving meningitis. The goal is to determine whether levels of certain cytokines correlate with clinical outcomes in patients presented with neurological emergencies.

If you would like more information about the Emergency Medicine Research Fellowship program, please contact Jason Z. D’Amore, MD or Mary Frances Ward, RN, MS, ANP.

Jason Z. D’Amore, MD
Telephone: 516-562-1237
Email: jzd29@hotmail.com