Methodist catches California research team

The Methodist Hospital Research Institute has recruited two of the nation's top researchers in the fields of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Willa Hsueh and Dr. John Baxter will be coming from California early next year, bringing along about 14 senior members of their research teams with them to Houston.

Hsueh is currently chief of the Endocrinology, Diabetes and Hypertension Division at the University of California-Los Angeles School of Medicine.

Dr. John D. Baxter has been at the University of California-San Francisco since 1970, serving as chief of the Endocrinology Section and director of the Metabolic Research Unit.

Hsueh has gained prominence through a number of medical breakthroughs. Her research group was the first to decipher the mechanisms used by current diabetes medications to protect against atherosclerosis.

Baxter is a pioneer in genetic engineering and hormone action. His group cloned several of the first classes of genes and demonstrated the power of recombinant DNA technology for developing treatments for diseases.

Baxter is also the founder or major shareholder of three pharmaceutical companies, a medical device maker, and an electronic medical records firm.



An inviting environment

Baxter and Hsueh, who have been collaborators for two decades, are coming to Houston as something of a "package deal."

Hsueh told Baxter she was thinking of moving her work to Methodist in Houston and wanted a genomics specialist to join her.

"I told her I would like to come, too" Baxter says.

Their goal is to create a world-class diabetes research center at Methodist rivaling the center Hsueh has established over the past two decades at UCLA.

Hsueh will serve as director of the Diabetes and Metabolism research program at Methodist's Research Institute and Department of Medicine.

Baxter will serve as co-director, as well as director of the Genomic Medicine program.

They fill two of 11 research director slots at the Methodist Research Institute, part of a new 440,000 square-foot state-of-the-art laboratory building that is currently under construction.

Hsueh and Baxter say the resources and support offered by Methodist and the Texas Medical Center induced them to leave positions in California and come to Houston.

Says Hsueh: "The environment is just unbelievable. The capabilities here are several orders of magnitude above UCLA. Instead of having to beg and stand in line to get permission and funding to do things, people here are asking me what I want to do or how can we do this. That's the spirit you want."

Adds Baxter: "There is a lot of interest in Houston to get more biotech going, and I have a lot of experience with that. I am an entrepreneur and Houston is an exciting environment for that."

Dr. Michael Lieberman, director of the Methodist Research Institute, says doing research to produce better treatments and cures for various illnesses should quickly translate those new discoveries to patient care in the hospital.

The institute focuses on this by working across disciplines.

Lieberman says Hsueh and Baxter "have bought into our vision of doing research without departmental boundaries, doing it around disciplines."

Baxter will assume his new position Jan. 3 and Hsueh will start Feb. 15.

The announcement came as "very encouraging news" to Ralston Cresswell, executive director of the Houston chapter of the American Diabetes Association.

"It's exciting to see that Methodist is paying attention to diabetes as a major health epidemic in this area," Cresswell says.

And Hsueh and Baxter are already recruiting top researchers from other institutions around the country to join them.

Methodist has so far recruited six directors. Steve Wong came from Harvard University, and another UCLA researcher has verbally agreed but not signed a contract yet.