2001 Outstanding Scientific Achievements by a Young Investigator
Lynn Bry, MD, PhD, is a clinical fellow in pathology at Brigham & Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Genetics and Development from Cornell University in 1990, then entered the Medical Scientist Training Program at Washington University Medical School in St. Louis. She did her thesis work in the laboratory of Dr. Jeffrey I. Gordon and developed two novel systems for studying host-microbial cross-talk within the gastrointestinal tract. She was awarded her MD and a PhD in Molecular Microbiology and Pathogenesis in 1998. She subsequently entered the residency program in laboratory medicine at Brigham & Women’s Hospital. While in her second year of the residency program, she was awarded a Howard Hughes Research Fellowship for Physicians to pursue a postdoctoral fellowship in molecular immunology in the laboratory of Dr. Michael B. Brenner at Brigham & Women’s Hospital. Her research currently involves the study of lymphocyte-epithelial cross-talk in the small intestine and colon.
While at Washington University, Dr. Bry also founded and continues to direct MadSci Network (www.madsci.org; formerly the MAD Scientist Network), an Ask-A-Scientist service based on the World Wide Web. The service involves more than 900 globally situated volunteer scientists who field questions from the general public and from students in kindergarten through the 12th grade. Last year the service received more than 32 000 questions in subjects from astronomy to zoology. The site was nominated for a Webby 2000 Award in science, and has been named one of the top 50 science sites on the web by Popular Science magazine for the past 3 years. Dr. Bry has been a consultant to the United States Department of Education concerning the use of the Internet for science education and has spoken before members of the Office of Science & Technology Policy and the United States Library of Congress concerning the establishment of distributed expert systems.
Dr. Bry has authored numerous publications, including an original paper in Science detailing a molecular model of host-microbial cross-talk in the small intestine. She recently authored a review article in Clinical Chemistry with David Sacks, MB, ChB, and Philip Chen, MD, PhD, also from Brigham & Women’s Hospital, concerning the effects of variant hemoglobins on testing for glycated hemoglobins. She currently is involved in efforts at Brigham & Women’s Hospital to develop a comprehensive specimen banking system and has a long-standing interest in developing web-based means for providing access to laboratory data and functions.
In addition to serving as director of MadSci Network, Dr. Bry also maintains the “Surrealism Server” and is a member of the online arts group SITO (www.sito.org). As a former member of the Cornell women’s crew team, she continues to participate in the sport of rowing. She is also a member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Nautical Association and enjoys sailing in the Boston area during the summermonths.