Mariano A. Garcia-Blanco, MD, PhD, Inducted Into AAAS
Mariano A. Garcia-Blanco, MD, PhD, was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), one of the country's oldest and most prestigious honorary societies, in recognition of his exceptional scientific contributions.
"Selection to the American Academy humbled me and reminded me of how much we still have to do to deserve this honor," Garcia-Blanco said. "My group and I will continue our work at the interface of RNA biology and immunology and hope to apply our fundamental research for the common good."
Garcia-Blanco is the F. Palmer Weber Medical Research Professor and Chair of the School of Medicine's Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology at the University of Virginia. He is a leading researcher into how RNA influences immunity and disease. In addition, Garcia-Blanco is a member of many prominent societies, including the Association of American Physicians. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Microbiology.
Hannah McCullough, BSN, RN, Joins Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford
Hannah McCullough, BSN, RN, is a pediatric hematology-oncology and stem cell transplant nurse at Stanford Medicine Children's Health's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford-the same hospital that cared for her brother following a brain cancer diagnosis.
Watching the nurses attend to her brother's needs, McCullough was in awe of how they focused on him as a whole person. "I looked up to the nurses. I found their unconditional commitment to my brother's care remarkable," she said. According to McCullough, her becoming a nurse was in honor of her brother. "I'm 25 and in my dream job, and it feels like I have come full circle."
McCullough now spends her days giving that very same attentive care to children and families navigating the same journey she endured all those years ago. "The experience prompted me to fulfill a desire to provide quality patient care, which emphasizes seeing the whole person as opposed to just the person's illness."
Today, McCullough is putting holistic care into practice as she strives to bring a sense of normalcy to the lives of her patients and families. She also knows the importance of simple gestures, such as a smile or taking an extra minute to listen to a story. Even on the busiest of days, Hannah is committed to building a warm, open culture. She finds pockets of time to spend with families and siblings of patients, so they know they are heard and loved.
"The holistic care approach not only manages pain and symptoms, but it also incorporates other techniques to improve overall patient outcomes, including quality of life, emotional support, stress and anxiety management, and empowerment," McCullough noted. "Additionally, pediatric cancer is a family affair, and it's important to encourage and support healthy family dynamics during these challenging times and beyond. As a nurse, we have a unique opportunity to make a difference in our patients' and families' lives. The hope in the eyes of patients and families is what keeps me going, and I try to instill that same hope in others."
Andrea Califano, Dr, Honored With National Cancer Institute Award
Andrea Califano, Dr, has been honored with the 26th Alfred G. Knudson Award in Cancer Genetics by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for his exceptional contributions to the field of cancer research. Califano, a pioneer in the field of cancer genetics, is the Clyde and Helen Wu Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and a member of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The award is named in honor of geneticist and cancer researcher Alfred G. Knudson, MD, a 1947 graduate of the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, who helped uncover several major genetic mysteries behind cancer leading to his hypothesis explaining the relationship between hereditary and non-hereditary cancer. The NCI presents this prestigious award to individuals who have advanced an understanding about the genetic workings of the disease.
"I am deeply honored and humbled to receive this award from the NCI," Califano said. "I continue to be inspired and motivated by the ability of my colleagues to look at cancer from novel and complementary angles. I am convinced that collaboration between cancer researchers with different backgrounds is absolutely critical to advancing our understanding of cancer's weaknesses and, ultimately, to finding new therapies that improve the lives of cancer patients and their families."
"Dr. Califano's innovative work has led the field and yielded new insights into cancer biology, particularly in the elucidation of how regulation of specific pathways can drive cancer," noted Stephen Chanock, MD, Director of the NCI's Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, who presented the award. "His work on how these changes can influence tumor dependency represents an important foundation for developing novel approaches to therapy, particularly in relapsed cancer."
National Academy of Medicine Elects New Members
The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) announced the election of new members during its annual meeting. Election to the Academy is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.
"This extraordinary class of new members is comprised of exceptional scholars and leaders who have been at the forefront of responding to serious public health challenges, combatting social inequities, and achieving innovative discoveries," said Victor J. Dzau, MD, President of the National Academy of Medicine. "Their expertise will be vital to informing the future of health and medicine for the benefit of us all. I am truly honored to welcome these esteemed individuals to the National Academy of Medicine."
Sankar Ghosh, PhD, the Silverstein and Hutt Family Professor and Chairman in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, was elected for being a pioneer in the purification and cloning of the members the NF-kB family of transcription factors, key effectors of many physiological and pathological states. He highlighted the mechanisms by which NF-kB is regulated and established strategies for targeting it therapeutically for inflammatory diseases and cancer.
Peter M. Glazer, MD, PhD, the Robert E. Hunter Professor and Chair in the Department of Therapeutic Radiology at Yale School of Medicine, was honored for discovering that tumor hypoxia causes genetic instability and IDH1 mutations suppress DNA repair in cancers, conferring vulnerability to radiation and PARP inhibitors. He developed novel DNA repair inhibitors for cancer therapy and triplex-forming oligonucleotides for gene editing. His work led to multiple new cancer clinical trials.
David H. Gutmann, MD, PhD, the Donald O. Schnuck Family Professor of Neurology at the Washington University School of Medicine, was honored for seminal contributions to the field of neurofibromatosis and related disorders, establishing novel human and murine preclinical model systems to elucidate the impact of germline genetics, cancer cells of origin, and the tumor microenvironment on pediatric brain tumor biology, patient risk assessment, clinical outcome, and targeted therapeutics.
Crystal L. Mackall, MD, Founding Director of Stanford Center for Cancer Cell Therapy and the Ernest and Amelia Gallo Family Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at Stanford University, was honored for pioneering immune therapies for children's cancers, as well as discovering fundamental principles of human immunology and translating these insights into cutting-edge engineered cell therapies for cancer.
Kornelia Polyak, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine and Medical Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, was honored for documenting the clinical and functional relevance of intratumoral cellular heterogeneity. She has convincingly shown, using novel technologies and experimental models, that many other cell types besides the neoplastic cells are responsible for the biological and physiological characteristics of any individual tumor.
David A. Tuveson, MD, PhD, FAACR, the Roy J. Zuckerberg Professor and Director at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cancer Center, was honored for his transformative leadership in pancreatic cancer biology. His work has led to the development of powerful pancreatic cancer models, which has been fundamental to preclinical studies of understanding targeted therapy and treatment of pancreatic cancer. He most recently has been a leader in organoid-based cancer models.
Peter John Campbell, MBChB, PhD, Chief of the Cancer, Aging, and Somatic Mutation Program at Wellcome Sanger Institute, Cambridgeshire, UK, was honored for being a pioneer in cancer genomics and tumor evolution. He has led a major effort to define the signatures of somatic mutations in many cancer types, defined patterns of selection operative during cellular transformation, and identified genes involved in specific tumors as they form, progress, and metastasize.
Connie J. Eaves, PhD, a distinguished scientist at Terry Fox Laboratory at the BC Cancer Research Institute and Professor in the Departments of Medical Genetics, Medicine, Pathology, and Laboratory Medicine in the School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of British Columbia, was honored for profoundly impacting knowledge of hematopoietic and mammary stem cells in both murine and human systems. Her focus on single cell stem cell analyses is widely regarded as seminal, leading to improved purification and detailed characterization of what makes a stem cell a stem cell.
Paul Salomon Mischel, MD, Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Pathology, Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Stanford University School of Medicine, and Institute Scholar with Sarafan ChEM-H at Stanford University, was honored for his paradigm-shifting research on extrachromosomal DNA, which has opened a new field in cancer biology with profound implications for non-Mendelian disease genetics and the impact of altered genome architecture. His pioneering research has provided seminal insight into the molecular pathogenesis of brain cancer, revealing a landscape of actionable drug targets.
Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, the Hugh Jackson Morgan Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry, Chair in the Department of Medicine, and Physician-in-Chief at Vanderbilt University Hospital and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, was honored for pioneering basic science investigation of kidney cancer and her work revealing the biological diversity of these tumors. In addition to uncovering novel mechanisms of cancer promotion paving the way for new therapeutics, she has created national mentorship networks and forged pathways for physician-scientist recognition and career impact.
Norman E. Sharpless, MD, Professor of Medicine at University of North Carolina School of Medicine, was honored for being a highly regarded cancer researcher with significant contributions to advance the understanding of cellular aging, circular RNAs, and the cell cycle.
Yang Shi, PhD, Professor and Director of Epigenetics at the Cancer Research UK Oxford Centre, University of Oxford, and member of Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, was honored for making the groundbreaking discovery that histone methylation, a central epigenetic mechanism long considered irreversible, is in fact reversible. He identified the first histone demethylase and subsequently many others. His elegant mechanistic discoveries revolutionized the epigenetics field and have had far-reaching impact on basic and translational research.
Sohail F. Tavazoie, MD, PhD, Leon Hess Professor at Rockefeller University, was honored for seminal studies that have uncovered molecular and cellular processes governing cancer metastasis including the discovery of a hereditary basis for metastasis and advancing novel anti-metastatic therapies into clinical testing.
Tracy Crane, PhD, RDN, & Carmen Calfa, MD, Awarded National Cancer Institute Grant
Tracy Crane, PhD, RDN, and Carmen Calfa, MD, at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and their collaborators, posed the question: "Can lifestyle interventions, such as exercise and intermittent fasting, help patients with advanced breast cancer better tolerate side effects from treatment?" A 5-year grant from the National Cancer Institute will aid the researchers in finding the answer.
"We know from previous studies of patients with early breast cancer that lifestyle interventions can reduce fatigue, improve physical function, and lessen the impact of other treatment-related side effects," Crane said. "However, there are few studies and limited data about the impact of exercise and dietary interventions on patients living with advanced breast cancer."
The trial focuses on women starting a CDK4/6 inhibitor medication in combination with hormonal therapy. Researchers hypothesize that prolonged overnight fasting with and without exercise during daylight hours will help with alignment of circadian activity rhythms and ultimately improve levels of fatigue. These rhythms include sleep/wake cycles and physical activity, and disruption of these significantly disturbs the homeostasis of a variety of biological and metabolic processes.
"For some patients," Calfa said, "the side effects [of cancer treatments] can become debilitating, resulting in them discontinuing treatment and subsequently compromising their oncological outcome. Empowering women with lifestyle interventions that allow them to take charge and drive a positive outcome is essential."