There are twelve medical professionals listed on page 15 who may not always be very visible to you as readers, but who are very visible to the members of the Board of Directors. They very generously lend us their expertise as consultants on difficult questions from members, in the writing or reviewing of material for this newsletter, in presenting or helping design presentations for our annual meeting, and in advising us on various aspects of our programming. In the next few issues we will introduce them to you. We have purposely sought out people with depth and breadth of experience with VHL -- people whose formal training has been enriched by working with a number of patients with VHL over a number of years.

Lloyd M. Aiello, M.D., Massachusetts

Dr. Aiello is an Associate Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and the Founder and Chief of the Beetham Eye Unit of Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. He holds a concurrent appointment as Chief of Ophthalmology in Surgery at New England Deaconess Hospital. He serves as President of the New England Ophthalmological Society and as a member of the National Diabetes Scientific Advisory Committee, Diabetes 2000, of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

A graduate of Harvard College and the Boston University School of Medicine, Dr. Aiello began his career as a physician in the Navy. He has spent the majority of his medical career doing research in diabetic eye disease and the use of lasers in medicine and biology. He has done extensive work on the use of lasers for the treatment of diabetic retinopathy and has made considerable contributions to this field.

He has been following a number of families with VHL in the Boston area for some thirty years. As a medical adviser to the Alliance he shares with us his expertise in the appli-cation of laser to retinal diseases, and his richness of exper-ience with von Hippel-Lindau in these patients. His son, Lloyd Paul Aiello, has recently joined the Beetham Eye Unit as an ophthalmologist.

Debra L. Collins, M.S., Kansas

Debra Collins is a genetic counselor in the Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology, and Genetics at the University of Kansas Medical Center. She is also an Assistant Professor and Director of the Genetics Education Center, designing and implementing genetics education programs for science teachers in the secondary schools.

She has served on the Board of Directors of the American Board of Medical Genetics (1989-1994) and of the National Society of Genetic Counselors (1982-1991), and as President of the NSGC 1988-89.

She graduated from the University of Texas in Austin, and earned her master's degree in Genetics at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. She served as an Advisory Board Member of the Human Genetics Graduate Program, Sarah Lawrence College, 1985-1992.

She has participated in numerous scientific articles, including several on VHL, such as "Computed tomography screening of the abdomen in the von Hippel-Lindau syndrome" (Amer J Roentgenology 139:505-510, 1982); "Diagnosis and management of asymptomatic renal cell carcinomas in von Hippel-Lindau syndrome" (Urology 21:2:146-150, 1983); "Von Hippel-Lindau disease maps to the region of chromosome 3 associate with renal cell carcinoma" (Nature 332:268-269, 1988); "Genetic flanking markers refine diagnostic criteria and provide insights into the genetics of von Hippel-Lindau disease" (Proc Natl Acad Sci, USA, 88:2864-2868, 1991); and "Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome: Screening at-risk family members and genetic counseling" (Birth Defects Original Article Services, Vol. 19(3):208, 1983).

Ms. Collins has been a valued Advisor to the Board of Directors of the VHL Family Alliance since its inception.

Haring J. W. Nauta, M.D., Ph.D., Texas

Dr. Nauta was born in the Netherlands in 1946. The following year he moved with his family to Zurich where his father had accepted a post in Neuroanatomy. After four years in Zurich, the family again moved, this time to the Washington, D.C., area. Dr. Nauta's father imparted an enthusiasm for the neurosciences which was infectious to many people.

By the time he obtained his bachelor's degree from Duke University, Dr. Nauta was already well aware that his future lay in some aspect of the neurosciences. He then went to medical school at Case-Western Reserve University and while there was enrolled in the M.D./Ph.D. program, doing his dissertation under Dr. Raymond Lasek. At Case-Western Reserve Dr. Nauta was introduced to the neurosurgical operating room by Dr. John Jane, who imparted an immediate enthusiasm for neurosurgery and neuroscience research.

His research work involved stereotaxy, the accurate location of a definite circumscribed area within the brain, with minimal damage to the remainder of the organ, by moving a probe or electrode along coordinates for measured distances from certain external points or landmarks of the skull. This led, in turn, to a natural progression towards human stereotaxy.

Dr. Nauta then did an internship in surgery at the Toronto General Hospital and a residency in Neurosurgery at the University of Toronto. There he was introduced to functional stereotactic neurosurgery by Dr. Ronald Tasker. After completing residency, Dr. Nauta joined the faculty at the University of Toronto and practiced for two years at the Toronto Western Hospital. He then went to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas. In 1985 he joined the faculty in neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins University where his energies were primarily focused on vascular neurosurgery and stereotactic neurosurgery, including stereotactic needle procedures in the CT scanner and LINAC-based radiosurgery.

In April 1993 he returned to Galveston to become the Chairman for Neurosurgery at the University of Texas Medical Branch. His plans are to help neurosurgery make more use of intraoperative imaging and treatment planning.

R. Neil Schimke, M.D., Kansas

Dr. Shimke has been with the University of Kansas Medical Center since 1967. He is Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, and has been Director of the Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology, and Genetics since 1977, where he has built up a highly respected practice and regional resource center for inherited cancers, including von Hippel-Lindau disease. He served for five years as Chief of Medicine at Kansas City Veterans Administration Hospital.

Dr. Schimke has held a number of leadership roles, including service on the Board of Directors of the American Board of Medical Genetics, 1983-1986. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Medical Genetics.

He has participated in more than 150 scientific papers and books, including "Genetics and the Practicing Physician" (J Ks Med Soc 69:1, 1968); "CT screening of the abdomen in von Hippel-Lindau disease" (A J R 139:505, 1982); "Proximal 3p deletion in renal cell carcinoma cells from a patient with von Hippel-Lindau disease" (Cancer Genet Cytogenet 27:345-348, 1987); "Von Hippel-Lindau disease maps to the region of chromosome 3 associated with renal cell carcinoma" (Nature, 332:2265:269, 1988) and a book, Genetics and Cancer in Man (Churchill-Livingstone, Edinburgh, 1978).

Dr. Schimke is a native of Kansas, graduating from Leavenworth High School and the University of Kansas. He won a Fulbright Scholarship in Theoretical Organic Chemistry, under which he earned a graduate degree at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität, Bonn, Germany. He also studied Mammalian Genetics under Dr. Elizabeth Russell at Jackson Memorial Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine.

He was recently designated "Medical Alumnus of the Year" (1993) at the Kansas University Medical School. He lives in Leavenworth with his wife and three children.

Robert B. Welch, M.D., Maryland

Dr. Robert B. Welch is Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Ophthalmology of The Greater Baltimore Medical Center, and Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and Former Director of the Retina Service at the Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore.

A native of Maryland, he graduated from Princeton University and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is a charter member of the Retina Society, and served as its President 1981-83. He served in the U.S. Navy and was Commended by the Army in 1986 for Outstanding Contributions to Army Ophthalmology.

His paper, "Von Hippel-Lindau Disease: The Recognition and Treatment of Early Angiomatosis Retinae and the Use of Cryosurgery as an Adjunct to Therapy," published in 1970 by the American Ophthalmological Society, is still a significant reference in the field. He too has cared for a number of families with VHL for thirty years, and has been involved in a number of papers, courses, and presentations on VHL, including a chapter on fluorescein angiography and VHL in Interpretation of the Fundus Fluorescein Angiogram, ed. Patz and Fine, Boston, 1977.

Dr. Welch was recently honored as President by the American Ophthalmological Society.

As published in the VHL Family Forum 2:3, September 1994. For permission to reprint, please contact the VHL Family Alliance at editor@vhl.org. Further information is available from the VHL Family Alliance, info@vhl.org.