Awards and Recognitions
Richard Burry, director of the OSUCCC Microscopy shared resource and the Campus Microscopy and Imaging Facility, has received the Carpenter-Rasch Award from The Histochemical Society. Burry was recognized for his years of service and his pioneering work to establish the Society’s, Journal of Histo-chemistry and Cytochemistry online.
John Byrd, MD, D. Warren Brown Designated Professorship in Leukemia Research and associate director for Translational Research for the OSUCCC, has been awarded the 2009 Michaele C. Christian Oncology Development Lectureship and Award from the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program. The award recognizes the contributions of individuals, particularly those in mid-career, to the development of novel agents for cancer therapy.
A. Douglas Kinghorn, PhD, DSc, the Jack L. Beal Professor and Chair in the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, has received the 2010 Norman R. Farnsworth Research Achievement Award from the American Society of Pharmacognosy. The competitive award recognizes lifetime contributions to natural products research.
The OSUCCC – James caGrid Knowledge Center Team has received the NCI’s caBIG Award for Collaboration, which recognizes teamwork for achievements based on multiple contributions from individuals or groups. The caGrid Knowledge Center involves the collaboration of The Ohio State University, where it is based, Emory University in Atlanta and the University of Chicago. The Ohio State team includes director Stephen Langella; co-director Michael Caligiuri, MD; and operation manager Justin Permar.
Heather Hampel, MS, LGC, a cancer genetic counselor and clinical associate director of the Division of Human Genetics, has been re-elected for a second term as president of the American Board of Genetic Counseling. The ABGC is the credentialing organization for the genetic counseling profession in North America, and it is responsible for the accreditation of graduate programs in genetic counseling.
Rebecca Nagy, MS, CGC, a genetic counselor and OSUCCC-James researcher, has begun a two-year term as secretary/treasurer elect of the National Society of Genetic Counselors for 2010.
Mark Bloomston, MD, FACS, assistant professor of Surgery and director of the Surgical Oncology Fellowship Program, is one of five recipients worldwide of a 2009 traveling fellowship from the James IV Association of Surgeons based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The association – named in honor of the fourth Stuart king of Scotland, who was fascinated with science – was formed to strengthen ties between surgeons of the United States and the United Kingdom. Bloomston traveled to Scotland, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, France, Hong Kong and Australia, visiting renowned physicians in liver and pancreas surgery.
Grants
Michael A. Caligiuri, MD, director of The OSUCCC and CEO of The James, received a $5.5 million, six-year, National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant for Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALBG) correlative sciences studies to better understand leukemia heterogeneity.
Arnab Chakravarti, MD, chair and professor of Radiation Oncology and co-director of the Brain Tumor Program, will lead a two-year, $2.05 million, multiple-principal-investigator, NCI Challenge grant awarded to the American College of Radiology. The grant is a collaboration between the OSUCCC – James, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and the American College of Radiology. The research is designed to improve the classification and treatment of glioblastoma.
Clara D. Bloomfield, MD, cancer scholar and senior adviser to the OSUCCC – James received a $3.2 million, six-year, NCI grant for continued support of the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) activities at the OSUCCC–James.
Albert de la Chapelle, MD, PhD, professor of Molecular Virology, Immunology and Medical Genetics and the Leonard J. Immke, Jr., and Charlotte L. Immke Chair in Cancer Research, received a $2.4 million, five-year, NCI grant to support postdoctoral training in cancer genetics.
Carlo M. Croce, MD, professor of Molecular Virology, Immunology and Medical Genetics, John W. Wolfe Chair in Human Cancer Genetics, and director of the Human Cancer Genetics program, received a $2 million, two-year, NCI grant for the Loss of miR-29s as Predictor of Response to Demethylating Agents.
Tim Huang, PhD, professor of Medical Virology, Immunology and Medical Genetics, received a $1.8 million, five-year grant from the NIH Common Fund/ Roadmap initiative for a study titled Epigenomics of bisphenol-A exposure and disease risk.
Jeffrey Parvin, MD, PhD, professor; Kun Huang, PhD, assistant professor, in the Department of Biomedical Informatics, and Umit Catalyurek, PhD, associate professor, received a $2.3 million, five-year, NCI grant to develop a new framework for discovery of genes involved in breast carcinogenesis.
Faculty and Staff
Mark Bloomston, MD, FACS, assistant professor of Surgery and director of the Surgical Oncology Fellowship Program, has been appointed as a cadre member of the GI surgery sub-committee for CALGB.
Susan Brown, RN, MSN, has been named chief nursing officer for the OSUCCC – James. Brown comes from the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center in Scottsdale, Ariz., where she served as associate vice president for oncology services and director of the center for the past 12 years. Prior to this, Brown served as administrative director of oncology services for Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, Md.
Stephen Chaykowski has been named OSUCCC – James executive director of Development.
Nagla Abdel Karim, MBBCH, has joined the cancer program as an assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology. Her clinical interest is lung cancer.
Edmund S. Kassis, MD, has joined the cancer program as an assistant professor of Surgery. His clinical and research interests are in thoracic oncology, with a focus on lung and esophageal cancers.
Jeffrey S. Rose, MD, has joined the cancer program as an assistant professor in the Division of Hematology and Oncology. His clinical interests include hepatocellular, gastric and esophageal cancer, and his research interests include localized therapies for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.
Robert Taylor, MD, medical director and fellowship director of the Center for Palliative Care at the OSUCCC – James, has been chosen to serve on an Ohio Health Care Coverage and Quality Council task force on “Informed and Activated Patients and Individuals.” Taylor says the task force will address medical ethics and care at the end of life and other issues.
Programs
As part of a Third Frontier Program Award, the The Ohio State University has granted a subcontract of $1.4 million to PreCelleon Inc. to help Ohio State and the Cleveland Clinic develop cell separation and enrichment technology to benefit cancer patients. The money is part of a larger $3.5 million grant package from the Ohio Department of Development that was awarded in July 2006 to principal investigator Jeffrey Chalmers, PhD, a professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Ohio State, an OSUCCC-James researcher and director of the OSUCCC’s Analytic Cytometry Shared Resource.