{"id":105328,"date":"2022-06-23T15:44:06","date_gmt":"2022-06-23T19:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/busm\/?p=105328"},"modified":"2022-06-23T15:44:06","modified_gmt":"2022-06-23T19:44:06","slug":"laurence-beck-named-inaugural-recipient-of-david-j-salant-professorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/2022\/06\/23\/laurence-beck-named-inaugural-recipient-of-david-j-salant-professorship\/","title":{"rendered":"Laurence Beck Named Inaugural Recipient of David J. Salant Professorship"},"content":{"rendered":"

On June 15, friends, colleagues, and family gathered in-person at the Hiebert Lounge as well as online to celebrate the installation of Laurence Beck, Jr., MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine and nephrology as the inaugural David J. Salant Professor of Nephrology.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Drs. Salant and Beck<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This newly established professorship honors David Salant, MBBCh, professor of medicine and vice chair of research for the department of medicine, for his many decades of research and clinical work.<\/p>\n

In his introduction, David Coleman, MD, John Wade Professor and chair of medicine, hailed Beck as \u201can exemplary physician (and) scientist who excels as an investigator, clinician, and educator.\u201d Coleman cited the groundbreaking discovery by Salant and Beck in finding the major antigen that causes the body\u2019s immune system to attack its kidneys and for discovering a protein marker in excreted urine that simplified testing for this autoimmune kidney disease known as membranous nephropathy (MN).<\/p>\n

Speaking at the ceremony, Jon Klein, MD, PhD, professor of medicine at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, said the publication of the Beck\/Salant findings in the New England Journal of Medicine<\/em> in 2009, \u201cfundamentally changed the way we studied kidney disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe result is that kidney disease diagnosis and treatment is more precise, and the diseases are better understood,\u201d said Klein, whose team helped in analyzing the protein markers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was ideal as a collaborator,\u201d said Klein of Beck. \u201cHe was easy to work with, undeterred by setbacks, and I came to know him as a highly innovative thinker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beck graduated from Harvard Medical School in 2000 and completed his residency and a clinical fellowship in nephrology at Boston Medical Center that included a research fellowship with Salant. He continues to do research in the BUSM Beck\/Salant Lab.<\/p>\n

Beck gave much credit to Salant for his success. \u201cDavid demonstrated how to do science in a meticulous manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salant\u2019s selflessness showed when he allowed his younger partner to take center stage and much of the credit for their joint discovery of the MN marker, Beck said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDavid let me take much of the credit for our joint discovery\u2026He provided me with high-visibility talks at international conferences\u2026and opened doors for me, both in academia and with some industry partners,\u201d said Beck. \u201c\u2026It was his lead-by-example manner that really pushed me forward and made me perform at my highest, my best.\u201d<\/p>\n

The discovery of the MN antigen and the marker was the capstone of three decades of research by Salant, who is originally from South Africa and moved to Boston as a BUSM researcher in 1977, joining the nephrology faculty in 1979. He became a professor of medicine and chief of nephrology in 1988 and served in that capacity for 32 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cDavid has received from every organization that exists in nephrology, the top research award that they have to give, and it\u2019s been richly deserved, as is the honor he\u2019s receiving now from Boston University,\u201d said William Couser, MD, affiliate professor of medicine and former head of nephrology at the University of Washington, who was a BUSM faculty member from 1972-82.<\/p>\n

Many at the ceremony spoke of Salant as a \u201cgentleman\/physician,\u201d noting his selflessness, his dual role as a physician and scientist and his status as a role model and mentor.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe always prioritized the interests of others over his own and has worked tirelessly and unflinchingly for the common good,\u201d said Couser.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was never seeking glory or recognition, but just the correct answers,\u201d said Lara Dember, MD, a BUSM faculty member from 1996-2001 who now is director of the clinical research certificate program at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine\u2019s Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics.<\/p>\n

\u201cDavid shaped the careers of so many people, not only in this room, but throughout the world,\u201d said Dember. \u201cWhat I learned from Dave when I was a young faculty member has shaped, in so many ways, who I am as an academic and a physician.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salant deflected praise onto all the other researchers who had worked on the MN project, especially Beck.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou were never really a trainee, but a partner in this venture,\u201d said Salant. \u201cI thank you for the time we\u2019ve spent together. It\u2019s been a pleasure and I hope we spend much more time together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The friendship and collaboration continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":903,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[89,146,91],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105328"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105328"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105337,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105328\/revisions\/105337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}