CAPTION: Models ships on display at the “Models in the Spotlight” exhibit at the USS Constitution Museum.

Visitors to the USS Constitution Museum can now see firsthand the meticulous and unique art of model-ship making.
Since 1979, the museum has partnered to stage an annual exhibit showcasing these replicas with the USS Constitution Model Shipwright Guild, the largest model-ship association on the East Coast with more than 100 members. This year’s program, entitled “Models in the Spotlight,” features approximately 70 ships made by modelers from across New England, as well as Guild members who will be on hand at the museum’s first-floor workshop to answer questions and display their craft-making techniques.
“We’re very fortunate to have some members who are among the best in the country,” said Harrie Slootbeek, the museum’s collection manager.
Among the model-ship builders whose work will be on display is Donna Adams, the first female member of the Guild in its history. Her featured models include a Muscough Bay lobster smack, a 1:24 scale replica of a 19th century boat used for hauling fresh lobster and fish, and a 7/8”-1’ scale Peapod, which was used for lobstering among the reefs of Maine.
“Every model has its own story, and it’s really hard to pick one that’s the best,” Slootbeek said.
“Models in the Spotlight” is on display at the USS Constitution Museum, located at Building 22 in the Navy Yard, through Friday, March 7, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. For more information about the exhibit and special programs, visit http://www.ussconstitutionmuseum.org/news_events/modelshow2009.htm.

CAPTION: Dr. Denise Faustman, director of the MGH Immunobiology Laboratory.

Dr. Denise Faustman is making groundbreaking strides in finding a cure for juvenile diabetes in a place where many would least expect: an inconspicuous looking building on 13th Street in the Navy Yard.
A native of Royal Oak, Mich., Faustman serves as director of the Navy Yard-based MGH Immunobiology Laboratory, as well as an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. She received a bachelor’s degree in zoology and chemistry from the University of Michigan in 1979 and a PhD in molecular biology from Washington University in St. Louis in 1985.
Faustman then relocated to Boston for an internship and residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. At that time, she only dreamed of becoming a more accommodating doctor than the one who treated her as a child.
“I hated my pediatrician,” Faustman recalled. “He didn’t talk much and was really serious. My whole goal was to be a better doctor than [he was].”
Still intent on becoming a physician, Faustman treated a woman with a foot ulcer during a rotation in a MGH diabetic clinic circa 1998 in a chance occurrence that caused her to reconsider her professional work.
“At that point, I decided I really picked the wrong career path,” she said. “I decided I needed to go back and change the course of this disease.”
Faustman was soon teamed with Dr. David Nathan, director of the MGH Diabetes Center and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, at the 13th Street laboratory where they still work today. Together, they sought to find the cure for type 1, or juvenile, diabetes. (Unlike type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 95 percent of all cases of the diabetes and is typically found in adults, type 1diabetes commonly afflicts children).
In 2001, Faustman’s lab shocked the medical world when it cured type 1 diabetes in mice by removing the islet portion of the pancreas that was being destroyed by the white blood cells, subsequently causing the pancreas to reproduce. These findings were in direct opposition to common notion at the time that the only way to treat type 1 diabetes was to replace the islet cells.
While this claim was met with opposition by the likes of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, which financed three independent studies that Faustman believes were intended to debunk her conclusions, she soon found a friend in ‘80s automotive mogul Lee Iacocca. Iacocca, who lost his wife to 27 years to type 1 diabetes in 1983, has donated $17 million to Faustman’s lab to date and remained a strong supporter of her sometimes unconventional approach to curing the disease.
“Lee gets a lot of credit here,” Faustman said. “He insisted the novel ideas be tested in people, not just mice. With philanthropic money, people can demand that tough experiments be done.”
In January of 2008, Faustman began phase 1 clinical trials on humans in the search for the cure for juvenile diabetes, which involves working with people suffering from the disease. This phase, which is expected to take another 12 to 18 months to complete, includes generic drug screening with BCG, an 80-year-old vaccine against tuberculosis that has been approved in the treatment of certain kinds of cancer.
“Then I hope to raise money for phase 2 and give the drug in different dosages and frequencies,” Faustman said.
For more information about the Faustman Lab at Mass. General, visit www.faustmanlab.org.

The Basic Services Committee of the Charlestown Neighborhood Council sponsored a meeting Monday night to discuss a proposal by a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit to establish a new historic district in the neighborhood.
Trust for Architectural Easements has suggested the creation of the Breed’s Hill district, which would include roughly 675 buildings and be bounded approximately by Warren Street, Dexter Row, Green Street, Bunker Hill Street, Ferrin Street, Prospect Street, Lowney Way and Adams Street to the intersection of Warren and Park streets. The proposed district would be submitted to the National Register of Historic Places, which was established under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 and is administered by the National Park Service.
Trust Area Manager Mory Bahar said if the National Register approved the application for the proposed district, homeowners would be eligible for perks including federal tax incentives and matching state grants for restoration of properties. “It has no implication of any historical easement…or restriction on your property,” he added.
Also in attendance at the meeting were representatives from the Boston Landmarks Commission and the Massachusetts Historic Commission, the city and state agencies that would review the historic district application before its submission to the National Register.
Ellen Lipsey, executive director of the Boston Landmarks Commission, said a second public meeting would likely follow to further explore the proposal, but the effort could easily be derailed if more than 50 percent of homeowners opposed it in writing.
“If a substantial group of people really do object, it would be difficult to move forward,” Lipsey said.
In March of 2008, Bahar appeared before the Neighborhood Council to propose the expansion of the neighborhood’s Monument Square and Town Hill national historical districts.

With Charlestown on-board as one of three pilot sites citywide, Smart from the Start is helping lower-income children get on the right path to enjoy success in the classroom and later in life.
“[Participating kids] vocabularies have increased, and their social skills and interaction with others are improving,” said Dina Maldonado, the program’s Early Childhood Specialist in Charlestown. “Parents learn positive ways to interact with their kids and spend more time with their kids.”
The program, which partners The Office of Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Boston Centers for Youth and Families, the Boston Housing Authority, the Boston Public Schools, the Boston Public Health Commission, the Family Nurturing Center and other key community and city organizations, helps children, ages 0 to 5, build the cognitive, language, physical and social/emotional skills necessary for school readiness. Parents are also encouraged to take an active role in their children’s education, acting as their first teachers.
Since its inception in December of 2007, the program now operates in Roslindale and Mattapan, as well as in Charlestown.
“Charlestown is truly fortunate to have been selected as one of the first three sites for this exciting program initiative,” said Beth Burton, cluster administrator of the Charlestown Community Center, where many Smart from the Start programs are based in the neighborhood. "With the support of community partners and strong outreach by our Early Childhood Specialist, this program is successfully serving the needs of 40 Charlestown families, with more than 100 participants. I anticipate that the number served through this program will only continue to grow.”
In an effort to reach children in all participating age groups, Smart to the Start offerings include: a loosely structured Parent/Baby Group that helps engage parents in early learning and prevent social isolation that often comes with a new child; Play-to-Learn Groups, structured playgroups for children, ages 11 months to 3 years old, that uses play to connect parents with necessary services and promotes early learning and parenting skills; one-time Parenting Workshops that explore topics chosen by parents to address their personal challenges; Family Nurturing Program, a 15-week curriculum for children of all ages and their parents that encourages parents’ use of community services and discourages child abuse and neglect; and Adult Education and Family Literacy, courses that promote literacy in children and their parents.
Maldonado said families from all three sites have also taken part in field trips to the Children’s Museum, the New England Aquarium, the Franklin Park Zoo and the Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary in Lincoln, among other locations. Parents often exchange phone numbers during these outings, resulting in subsequent play dates for their children, she said.
While Maldonado said she has spent much of her time educating the community about Smart from the Start so far, she now hopes to find new partners and support for the program outside of the community.
“We’ll continue to do outreach in the community,” she said, “but we also hope to find partnering organizations outside of Charlestown, including in East Boston and Chelsea.”
For more information about the Smart from the Start program, call Dina Maldonado, the program’s Early Childhood Specialist in Charlestown, at 617-635-5170.