Letter from Chair of Search Committee

Dear Colleague:

I am very pleased and excited to report to you that, subject to formal ratification by the State University Board of Trustees, Dr. Samuel L. Stanley will be appointed Stony Brook University’s next president. I have attached a press release announcing Dr. Stanley’s selection.

Dr. Stanley currently serves as the Vice Chancellor for Research at Washington University in St. Louis. He received his B.A. (1976) from the University of Chicago and his M.D. (1980) from Harvard Medical School. After completing his internship and residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, he did postdoctoral work in immunology at Washington University and was thereafter appointed to the faculty in the Division of Infectious Diseases of Washington University Medical School, one of the nation’s most highly ranked Schools of Medicine.

In 2003, Dr. Stanley was named Director of the Midwest Regional Center for Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research, an NIH funded, multidisciplinary research center. In 2006, Dr. Stanley was named Vice Chancellor for Research. He has an outstanding reputation as a distinguished medical researcher and has published extensively. Under his leadership and guidance, Washington University’s research funding has grown tremendously to a level of sponsored research of some $584 million.

While Dr. Stanley has extraordinarily impressive credentials in the medical research arena, both the Search Committee and the Stony Brook Council were equally impressed with his understanding of and commitment to all the elements which make a major university great. He spoke eloquently to the Committee of his studies in history and of his travels with his father, who was a professor of archeology. Dr. Stanley is the type of Renaissance man who truly embraces the totality of the academic enterprise and will work to promote interdisciplinary collaborations at Stony Brook.

Dr. Stanley will lead Stony Brook’s efforts to build upon the foundation of critical relationships with Brookhaven National Lab and Cold Spring Harbor Lab. Under his leadership, Stony Brook can indeed become a national center of cutting edge research and help cure disease in a number of areas.

Dr. Stanley is articulate, thoughtful, deliberative, and strategic in his approach to academic issues of import. Also, he embraces a leadership and management style which empowers people to do their jobs. Most critically, he has effective communications skills which emphasize listening and collaboration. This is an exciting time for Stony Brook and we look forward to Dr. Stanley’s tenure. I look forward to having you meet Dr. Stanley and his wife, Dr. Ellen Li.

In conclusion, I want to extend Stony Brook’s heartfelt thanks to the men and women of the Search Committee and Stony Brook Council who spent countless hours on this most important task. Throughout the process, they put the interests of Stony Brook University first, and I am proud to be associated with each and every one of these fine members of the Stony Brook family.

Sincerely,

Richard T. Nasti ‘78
Chair, Presidential Search Committee

See also:

Press Release

Dr. Stanley's CV
 

Ellen Li, M.D., Ph.D.

Professor of Medicine

Dr. Li joined the Gastroenterology Division in 1986. She received her M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Washington University School of Medicine. She completed her internal medicine training at Massachusetts General Hospital and returned to Washington University for a fellowship in gastroenterology. The major focus of Dr. Li's current research is on the structure and function of intestinal vitamin A binding proteins. A second focus of her research is on the pathogenesis of amebiasis.

Research Interests

The major focus of our work is to understand the structure and function of vitamin A binding proteins. We have examined the structure and function of an abundant intestinal binding protein, cellular retinol binding protein II (CRBP II). Using high-resolution multidimensional nuclear magnetic resonance analysis, we have detected changes in conformation between the liganded and unliganded forms of CRBP II, that were not observed in the crystalline forms. Analysis of CRBP II knockout mice generated in this laboratory reveal that this protein plays a critical role in the prenatal transfer of maternal vitamin A to the developing fetus when dietary maternal vitamin A is limiting. More recently, the laboratory has begun studying the NMR structure and dynamics of the nuclear hormone receptor, retinoid-x-receptor a (RXRa). RXRa is a member of the nuclear hormone receptor family and consists of a DNA binding domain and a ligand-binding domain (LBD). While it is capable of binding to cis-acting DNA elements as homodimers, it also serves as an obligate heterodimeric partner for multiple other nuclear hormone receptors involved in lipid nutrient signaling, including the peroxisomal proliferator-activated receptors and the vitamin D receptor. These receptors potentially play an important role in colonic mucosal proliferation. RXRa binds 9-cis retinoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid. Upon binding ligand, the LBD undergoes conformational changes that leads to altered recruitment of corepressors and coactivators, that in turn results in altered transcriptional regulation of target genes. We have made sequence specific resonance assignments for the liganded and unliganded forms of the RXRa LBD. This will allow us to study the interactions of the RXRa LBD with ligands, coactivator peptides and the ligand binding domains of other nuclear receptors. My clinical interests include GI infections and IBD.

Link to Medline for selected publications

Division of Gastroenterology
Department of Medicine
Washington University School of Medicine