Stephen D. Nimer, MD, has been named Director of Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center Director at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. A news release notes that Nimer, now the Alfred P. Sloan Chair in Cancer Research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, plans to expand the breast cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, and hematologic malignancies programs, among others, as well as expanding the faculty and the center's research capabilities.
Michael B. Atkins, MD, has been appointed Deputy Director of George-town Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. In this position he will lead the expansion of the clinical and research activities in melanoma and kidney cancer, and facilitate the development of the multidisciplinary disease-specific program at Med Star Georgetown University Hospital. He was most recently at Harvard Medical School, as Professor of Medicine, and at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, as Deputy Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology and Associate Director for Clinical Research. He replaces Peter G. Shields, MD, now Deputy Director of Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute.
Albert W. Girotti, PhD, Professor of Biochemistry at Medical College of Wisconsin and Member of the Free Radical Research Center there, has received a five-year, $1.2 million grant from the NCI to investigate the influence of metabolic and environmental factors on the effectiveness of photodynamic therapy (PDT). The project will study the production of pro-survival nitric oxide in breast, prostate, and skin cancer cells and animal tumor PDT models subjected to PDT-like stress.
The NIH has awarded a team of University of Virginia and Johns Hopkins University researchers a five-year, $3.3 million grant to continue their research on developing a technique to break through the blood-brain barrier and treat glioblastomas. Co-Principal Investigators are Justin Hanes, PhD, Director of the Center for Nanomedicine of the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and Richard Price, PhD, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Research Director of the Focused Ultrasound Center at University of Virginia.
Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center has opened a new cancer center, the Memorial Hermann Cancer Center, which will focus on personalized treatment, as well as promoting holistic care, with access to social workers, nutrition counseling, support groups, pastoral care, and genetic counseling. Robert J. Amato, DO is the center's Medical Director and a Professor at UTHealth.
Mitchell C. Posner, MD, the Thomas D. Jones Professor of Surgery and Chief of the Section of General Surgery and Surgical Oncology at the University of Chicago, is now Medical Director of Clinical Cancer Program. His clinical expertise is in gastrointestinal cancers.
Yi-Wei Tang, MD, PhD, has joined Memorial Sloan-Ketter-ing Cancer Center (MSKCC) as Chief of the Clinical Microbiology Service. His research focuses on developing and improving microbiological and molecular diagnostic testing procedures for infectious diseases. He was most recently at Vanderbilt University as Professor of Pathology and Medicine and Medical Director of the Molecular Infectious Disease Laboratory.
Also at MSKCC, Michael D. Stubblefield, MD, has been named Chief of the Rehabilitation Medicine Service. His clinical focus is in identifying and treating the long-term complications that can develop in cancer survivors, especially the late effects of radiation therapy.
Ellinor I. Peerschke, PhD, has been appointed Vice Chair for Education, Research, and Development of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Head of the Hematology Laboratory at MSKCC. She was previously at Mount Sinai Medical Center as Director of Hematology Services as well as the Diagnostic Immunology Laboratory. Her research focuses on biomarkers that predict arterial and venous thrombosis, and the interface between cancer and the coagulations system.
Ping Chi, MD, PhD, has been named a Geoffrey Beene Junior Faculty Chair at MSKCC's Geoffrey Beene Cancer Research Center. She joined the faculty last year as a physician scientist and a medical oncologist caring for patients with soft tissue and bone sarcomas and melanoma. She also heads the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program, leading research on cancer-causing genetic and epigenetic factors, and novel sarcoma biomarkers and therapeutics.
Also at MSKCC, Mark G. Kris, MD, Chief of the Thoracic Oncology Service, and Ann Culkin, RN, OCN, in the Thoracic Oncology Service, have received the Wholeness of Life Award from the HealthCare Chaplaincy, given for compassionate care of lung cancer patients, honoring individuals who demonstrate exceptional respect for patients and enhancing quality of life.
Khurshid Guru, MD, Director of the Center for Robotic Surgery at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) has been named the institute's second Dr. Robert P. Huben Professor of Urologic Oncology, a professorship established in 2006 to support urologic education and research.
Guru and his Roswell Park team pioneered RPCI's program for robotic cystectomy; he performed the first robot-assisted cystectomy in Western New York in November 2005, and performs live demonstrations of robot-assisted prostatectomy at international seminars.
In 2010, he and his collaborators at the University at Buffalo's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences introduced the first robot-assisted surgical simulator that mimics the daVinci robotic surgical system, and last year his company, Simulated Surgical Systems LLC, a spinoff company of RPCI, launched the first procedure-specific software modules for robot-assisted surgery.
Frederick F. Becker, MD, Professor of Molecular Pathology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, will receive the 2012 American Society for Investigative Pathology Gold-Headed Cane Award later this month, in recognition of his research, teaching, and leadership in academic medicine. His research has focused on epigenetic changes during pre-malignancy and in malignant tumors. He has developed a biophysical technology capable of identifying the electronic phenotype of individual cells, which could have application in separating malignant cells from blood and cell mixtures for subsequent analysis.
Albert B. Einstein, Jr., MD, has been awarded the Association of Community Cancer Center's David King Community Clinical Scientist Award for outstanding service, leadership, and commitment to the oncology community. He is recognized for his work in cancer program development and chemotherapy for genitourinary cancers, according to a statement.
He practiced medical oncology for 17 years at Virginia Mason Clinic in Seattle, where he was a member of the Executive Committee of the National Bladder Cancer Collaborative Group A, founder and principal investigator of the Virginia Mason Community Clinical Oncology Program, Chairperson for bladder cancer research for the Southwest Oncology Group Genitourinary Committee, President of the Virginia Mason Research Center, and Medical Director of the Virginia Mason cancer program.
In 1993 he returned to academic medicine at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Center, during which time he helped to develop the center into a NCI-designated cancer center, and in 1999 he returned to Seattle to establish and direct the Swedish Cancer Institute at the Swedish Medical Center, the largest comprehensive cancer program in the State of Washington.
Michael Maitland, MD, PhD, Assistant Director for Clinician Education in the Center for Personalized Therapeutics and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago, received the Leon I. Goldberg Young Investigator Award from the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.
The Oncology Nursing Society has selected Moffitt Cancer Center to receive the 2012 Employer Recognition Award for large employers to recognize employers who show exemplary support of their registered oncology nurses. Moffitt recognizes its oncology nurses by rewarding those who become certified; offering two scholarships per year for nurses to attend the national ONS conference of their choice; granting three paid professional development days each year for nurses to attend professional conferences; and purchasing, using and disseminating ONS materials such as standards, guidelines, and other resources to their nurses.
"In 2011, Moffitt celebrated 25 years of oncology nursing," said Jane Fusilero, Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer of Moffitt. "We are honored to be recognized by the society."
Thomas Look, MD and Kimberly Stegmaier, MD, both of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Adolfo Ferrando, MD, PhD, of Columbia University Medical Center have each been named recipients of a one-year, $100,000 Bridge Grant from Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation.
Look's research examines reasons for first-line therapy failure for children with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and aims to develop improved targeted therapies for this subset of high-risk patients. Stegmaier's research focuses on developing new therapies for patients with Ewing sarcoma of the bones or soft tissue surrounding bone. And Ferrando's research analyzes the role of the NOTCH1 gene in the development of T-cell ALL in order to improve targeted therapy for children with the disease.
These awards are the inaugural three Bridge Grants, which are designed to allow promising projects denied of NIH grants to continue while the researchers reapply for funding.
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