NEWS

Awards, Appointments, Announcements

{blacksquare} Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California at San Francisco, has received the Twenty-Sixth Annual Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cancer Research. The award recognizes her contributions to the discovery of telomerase and the understanding of telomere function. Blackburn will receive a $50,000 cash prize and a silver medal at the annual awards dinner to be held in New York City in October.

{blacksquare} The March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, Seattle, has awarded Ronald M. Evans, Ph.D., of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., and Pierre Chambon, M.D., of the Institute for Genetics and Cellular and Molecular Biology, CNRS/INSERM, Strasbourg, France, the March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology for their discovery of nuclear hormone receptors, which have led to new cancer treatments.

The prize, a cash award of $250,000 and a silver medal, is awarded annually to investigators whose research has contributed to the understanding of birth defects.

{blacksquare} Christina M. Coughlin, M.D., Ph.D., has received the 2003 Fellow Basic Research Award from the Society for Pediatric Research for her work on modified immune cells, which may lead to new cancer vaccines for children. Coughlin is a research fellow at the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

{blacksquare} Anthony P. Shuber, executive vice president and chief technology officer of EXACT Sciences Corp., has been awarded the inaugural "90 in 9 Science Award" by the Colorectal Cancer Network. The award recognizes individuals who have contributed to the network’s goal of having 90% of people at risk of colorectal cancer be screened by 2010. EXACT Sciences Corporation is developing technologies for the early detection of several common cancers.

{blacksquare} Journal news editor Katherine Arnold was one of the recipients of the inaugural Excellence in Women’s Health Research Journalism Award. The award, presented by the Society for Women’s Health Research, recognizes print, broadcast, radio, or Internet journalists who have conveyed accurate and appropriate medical research findings to the public. Arnold was honored for a news story she wrote on human papillomavirus testing and cervical cancer ("Study Results Help Define HPV’s Role as Diagnostic Tool," Feb. 21, 2001, Vol. 93, No. 4, p. 259).

{blacksquare} Michael A. Friedman, M.D., has been named president and chief executive officer of the City of Hope Medical Center in Los Angeles. Friedman is a former acting commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and former associate director of the National Cancer Institute. In his new position, he will oversee the entire medical center, including its research and development arms. He replaces Gil N. Schwartzberg, who is retiring.

{blacksquare} Kenneth A. Foon, M.D., has been named co-director of the biological therapeutics program and co-director of the hematologic malignancies program at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. He has also been appointed professor in the division of hematology/oncology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

He was previously a director of clinical development at Abgenix Inc., a biotechnology company in Fremont, Calif., and a professor of internal medicine at Stanford University.

{blacksquare} Ravi Salgia, M.D., has been named director of lung cancer research at the University of Chicago. Salgia was previously an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Salgia’s research focuses on pathogenesis and new treatments for small-cell lung cancer.

{blacksquare} Shelley L. Berger, Ph.D., has been appointed to the Hilary Koprowski Endowed Professorship at The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia. She is studying how the DNA-packing structure of chromatin is manipulated during genomic processes. She holds an adjunct appointment at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

{blacksquare} Patrick T. Mooney, M.D., has been named chief medical officer of Aphton Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company developing immunotherapies for gastrointestinal and reproductive cancers. Mooney was previously vice president and senior biotechnology analyst at Thomas Weisel Partners, LLC.

{blacksquare} Martin Mattingly, Pharm.D., has been appointed executive vice president of CancerVax Corp., Carlsbad, Calif. Mattingly was previously vice president and general manager for Pfizer’s Agouron Pharmaceuticals. In addition, Steven Ruhl has been named executive director of manufacturing and Rabi Prusti, Ph.D., has been named director of quality control. CancerVax is a biotechnology company developing products for the treatments and control of cancer.

{blacksquare} Richard P. Harvey, Dr.P.H., has been appointed radiation safety officer in the Department of Radiation Safety at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y. Harvey was previously an assistant professor in the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the University of Buffalo. His research focuses on internal dosimetry, kinetic modeling of biological systems, and environmental dose reconstruction.

Items in "Awards, Appointments, Announcements" are compiled from notices received by the News section. Not all notices are used; all are edited.



             
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