ROYAL OAK ? David Felten, the former dean of the School of Graduate Medical Education at Seton Hall University, has been named medical director for the Beaumont Hospitals Research Institute.
Dr. Felten will focus on increasing research funding from foundations, government and private philanthropy. He will also explore grant opportunities across disciplines for integrative programs at Beaumont, and will look into research partnerships with local medical schools and universities.
?Dr. Felten brings the scientific expertise to the Research Institute to help Beaumont achieve its goals of furthering our mission to become one of the truly renowned research institutes in the country,? said Dr. Ronald Irwin, M.D., executive vice president and chief medical officer of Beaumont Hospitals. ?His experience is remarkable.?
Dr. Felten has a bachelor?s degree in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a doctoral degree in anatomy/ neuroscience through the Institute of Neurological Science at the University of Pennsylvania.
?Beaumont is such a great institution,? Dr. Felten said. ?There?s a wonderful opportunity here to work with outstanding physicians and help support their research endeavors.?
Dr. Felten has a bachelor?s degree in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a doctoral degree in anatomy/ neuroscience through the Institute of Neurological Science at the University of Pennsylvania.
His awards include two National Institutes of Health MERIT awards from the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute of Mental Health. He was the first neuroscientist to be awarded the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Prize fellowship. His laboratory demonstrated the first major neural links between the brain and the immune system, and he has studied the medical implication of these links in cancer, autoimmune diseases and infectious diseases.
Dr. Felten has previously served as a professor, chairman and institute director at the University of Rochester School of Medicine; and a center director at Loma Linda University School of Medicine and the University of California, Irvine College of Medicine.
He has also served as a grant reviewer on study sections for eight different institutes at NIH as well as for many other national and international funding agencies. He has served on the National Board of Medical Examiners for close to 20 years, including several years as chairman of the Neurosciences Committee.
The Beaumont Research Institute has nearly 300 investigators conducting more than 870 active laboratory and clinical studies funded by government and commercial entities, with a budget expected to top $22 million this year.
