FAER-Helrich Research Lecture: ‘The Prepared Mind’
Proper training in research is the key to future advances in anesthesiology.
The mechanisms by which volatile anesthetics produce anesthesia remain poorly understood. Hugh C. Hemmings Jr., MD, PhD, FRCA, has played a leading role in efforts to solve that problem, focusing on a role for voltage-gated sodium channels (Navs).
Dr. Hemmings will deliver this year's Annual FAER-Helrich Research Lecture, “The Prepared Mind,” 2:45-3:45 p.m. on Saturday.
Using his career path as an illustrative example, Dr. Hemmings will emphasize the importance of training in fundamental research to continued advances in anesthesiology.
Dr. Hemmings is the Joseph F. Artusio Jr. Professor and Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology, Professor of Pharmacology, and Senior Associate Dean for Research at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City. He is also Anesthesiologist-in-Chief of the New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, and for the past 10 years, he has served as editor-in-chief of the British Journal of Anaesthesia. Dr. Hemmings is the epitome of the “triple threat” research-clinician who brings excellence and a commitment to his roles as clinician, educator, and researcher.
There have been two important phases in his research career – the first of which focused on DARPP-32, a critical cytosolic protein that regulates dopamine signaling pathways. This phase began when Dr. Hemmings was working in the laboratory of late neuroscientist Paul Greengard, first as a graduate student at Yale, and later as postdoctoral associate at Rockefeller University.
Their 1984 Nature paper established that DARPP-32 in its phosphorylated – but not its dephosphorylated – state inhibited protein phosphatase-1, which in turn has profound consequences for downstream substrates, including neurotransmitter receptors, voltage-gated ion channels, ion pumps, and transcription factors (Nature 1984;310:503-5). This work now has over 550 Web of Science citations and was specifically referenced in Paul Greengard's 2000 Nobel Prize lecture.
The second phase in Dr. Hemmings’ career has emphasized Navs as relevant molecular targets for general anesthetics. This story began in 1995, when Dr. Michael Schlame, working in the Hemmings lab, demonstrated that volatile anesthetics (but not pentobarbital) inhibited glutamate release from the axon terminal. It was also demonstrated that this inhibition was independent of Ca2+-dependent release mechanisms, and, as such, might be the result of Nav inhibition (Anesthesiology 1995;82:1406-16). That conjecture has been confirmed in numerous studies over the past 30 years, with recent identification of a critical volatile anesthetic binding site in the bacterial sodium channel NavMs (Nature Comm June 2026).
As an educator, Dr. Hemmings is committed to the wide dissemination of knowledge related to the practice of anesthesiology, from basic science to clinical application. Such commitment is evidenced by his textbook "Foundations of Anesthesia: Basic and Clinical Science” (third edition, 2006), and through his role as editor-in-chief for the ninth and 10th editions of “Yao & Artusio's Anesthesiology: Problem-Oriented Patient Management.”
In between papers, textbooks, grant applications, institutional research oversight, and editorial responsibilities, he still regularly provides patient care as the senior member of the thoracic anesthesia service.
Please join us on Saturday for what promises to be a compelling and inspiring lecture as ASA celebrates Dr. Hemmings' extraordinary contributions to our specialty over four decades.
Editor’s Note: A more complete version of this article, written by Peter A. Goldstein, MD, Vice Chair of the ASA Committee on Research, appears in the September ASA Monitor.
