SHOP TALK

Steven A. Rosenberg, MD, PhD, Chief of Surgery at the National Cancer Institute and Professor of Surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, received the inaugural Richard V. Smalley, MD, Memorial Award from the International Society for Biological Therapy of Cancer. The Award recognizes therapeutic research with biological agents and is accompanied by a $5,000 honorarium. In conjunction with the Award, Dr. Rosenberg presented a scientific lecture at the Society's Annual Meeting.Figure: Steven A. Rosenberg, MD, PhDDr. Rosenberg was the first to successfully insert foreign genes into humans and to conduct clinical studies of gene therapy for cancer. More recently, he and his research group cloned the genes encoding cancer regression antigens and used these genes to develop cancer vaccines for metastatic melanoma. His recent studies of cell transfer therapies have resulted in cancer regressions in patients associated with the clonal repopulation of antitumor lymphocytes. Michaele Christian, MD, Associate Director of the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis' Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program, received a 2005 Meritorious Executive Presidential Rank Award. President George W. Bush recognized 278 federal executives this year with the Award, the government's highest for civil servants. Winners are nominated by their agency heads, evaluated by boards of private citizens, and approved by the president.Figure: Michaele Christian, MDMemorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center awarded three investigators with the 2005 Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research, which is named after Paul A. Marks, MD, President Emeritus of MSKCC, and recognizes significant contributions to the basic understanding and treatment of cancer by scientists no older than 45 at the time they are nominated. The recipients will share a $150,000 award. • Tyler E. Jacks, PhD, the David H. Koch Professor of Biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Director of the MIT Center for Cancer Research, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, has taken novel approaches to creating more accurate mouse models of human cancer (OT, 9/10/05). His laboratory has engineered mice in which researchers can direct where and when mutations of K-Ras, p53, and other cancer-causing genes are activated.Figure: Tyler E. Jacks, PhD• Scott W. Lowe, PhD, Professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Deputy Director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cancer Center, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, studies apoptosis and cellular senescence. His work has shown how changes in p53 can spur tumor development and how the disruption of p53 can affect a tumor's response to therapy, leading to drug resistance.Figure: Scott W. Lowe, PhD• Jeff Wrana, PhD, Professor of Medical Genetics and Microbiology at the University of Toronto, Senior Scientist in the Program in Molecular Biology and Cancer in the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute International Research Scholar, and colleagues helped to define the components of the transforming growth factor-beta signaling pathway and determine how its receptors are internalized by cells. He demonstrated that a key component of the TGF-beta pathway is mutated in some forms of colorectal cancer, and, most recently, has begun using high-throughput screening to study TGF-beta and other key signaling pathways.Figure: Jeff Wrana, PhDTwo physician-researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center received European prizes for their hematology/oncology research. Each award carries a prize of 10,000 euro. Christopher Baum, MD, received the Sir Hans Krebs Award, given annually to honor a basic science research paper related to medicine. Dr. Baum and coauthors of a study published in Science earned the Award for their work showing the potential consequences of gene transfer into hematopoietic stem cells.Figure: Christopher Baum, MDThe goal of Dr. Baum's lab is to develop cell and gene therapies for hematopoietic system disorders. Dr. Baum also received the Langen Science Award 2005, which he will share with Christof von Kalle, MD, also of Cincinnati Children's, and two additional European scientists.Figure: Christof von Kalle, MDThe Langen Award was given by the Paul-Ehrlich-Institute, the national institute in Germany that supervises biological therapies, for achievements in the field of gene therapy. Dr. Kalle studies human hematopoietic stem cells using stem cell tracking methods in human gene therapy trials. He has pioneered the methodology to identify and track specific insertion sites of vectors in the human genome. John Glick, MD, has expressed his intention to step down as Director of the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania and as Principal Investigator of the University's National Cancer Institute Core Grant, effective June 30. After serving for more than 20 years as a senior administrator, Dr. Glick decided to devote more time to clinical practice and to increasing philanthropic support for PENN Medicine. He will continue as President and Director of the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute.Figure: John Glick, MDThe American Thyroid Association (ATA) elected Matthew Ringel, MD, a physician at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center—Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, to its Executive Council. Dr. Ringel will serve a four-year term as one of eight directors on the ATA's Executive Council. His research focuses on the molecular pathways in the development and spread of thyroid and endocrine tumors.Figure: Matthew Ringel, MDKenneth Buetow, PhD, was appointed to the new position of National Cancer Institute Associate Director for Bioinformatics and Information Technologies. Previously, Dr. Buetow served as Director of the NCI Center for Bioinformatics. In this new role, he will manage and carry out information technology and bioinformatics initiatives that will lead to the usage of common tools, standards, and datasets across NCI; assist internal teams in adopting and leveraging NCI's cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid infrastructure; review and update NCI's existing and planned bioinformatics programs and activities; make recommendations for the creation of a standing group that will provide technical guidance on new projects; and regularly report to the NCI Executive Committee, of which he is a member.Figure: Kenneth Buetow, PhDGarth Powis, DPhil, was named Chair of the Department of Experimental Therapeutics and Director of the Center for Targeted Therapy at the new Red and Charline McCombs Institute for the Early Detection and Treatment of Cancer at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. The recently established Center for Targeted Therapy has two purposes—to coordinate all stages of the drug discovery and development process and to design more effective and specific drugs with less toxicity and that are targeted for individualized therapy. Currently, Dr. Powis serves as Chair of a National Institutes of Health Study Section on basic mechanisms of cancer therapeutics.Figure: Garth Powis, DPhil

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