February 2012
2012 Moores Scientific Retreat Recap
The 2012 Moores Scientific Retreat, held Saturday, January 28, at Paradise Point Resort, drew nearly 100 Cancer Center members and others to hear lectures and engage in lively discussion around the day’s theme, “Promoting Transdisciplinary Research in a Cancer Center.”
This year’s retreat offered a real-time funding opportunity. At the end of the morning program, attendees received a “Transdisciplinary Pilot Project RFA.” They were given 90 minutes to form collaborative tea
ms to develop brief project proposals addressing one of 10 NCI provocative questions. Proposals had to demonstrate a depth and breadth of research activities bridging laboratory, clinical and population-based research. An award of up to $50,000 was offered to the winning project.
Six proposals were submitted to the review committee, which announced the awardee at the end of the retreat. The winning proposal, submitted by Kelly Frazer, PhD; Willis Li, PhD; Dong-Er Zhang, PhD, and John Pierce, PhD, will investigate whether epigenetic signatures at baseline, and/or changes over time, are associated with the development of distant bone metastases among women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. Their collaboration will utilize matched samples collected by the Women’s Healthy Eating and Living (WHEL) study of the role of diet in breast cancer, drawing upon team members’ expertise in leukocyte biology, genomics and epigenetics in an effort to identify early epigenetic risk factors for bone metastasis.
Tom Kipps, MD, PhD, Interim Director of the Cancer Center, opened the program. The day’s speakers included Daniel Stokols, PhD, from UC Irvine; and MCC members David Cheresh, PhD; Kun-Liang Guan, PhD; Catriona Jamieson, PhD; Andrew Kummel, PhD; Elena Martinez, PhD, and James Sallis, PhD.
The success of the event was in large part due to the hard work and planning of co-chairs Ruth Patterson, PhD, and Donald Durden, MD, PhD, (shown at top of article with Daniel Stokols), and committee members Jacqueline Kerr, PhD; Santosh Kesari, MD, PhD; and Anil Sadarangani, PhD.
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Oncology Services Welcomes Bobby Cherry
Bobby Cherry, MHA, has joined the Moores Cancer Center as the Assistant Director of Oncology Services. In this role, he will provide oversight of Infusion, the Procedure Suite, Cancer Registry, Business Office, Patient and Family Support Services and Palliative Care at MCC.
During almost 28 years with the Navy, Bobby served in a number of administrative roles at facilities throughout the U.S., and as distant as Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa. Most recently he was stationed at Camp Pendleton, where he was the First Marine Division Deputy Surgeon overseeing medical planning, manpower management, and personnel administration for 1,300 Sailors who support 25,000 Marines.He earned his MHA from Baylor University. While completing his graduate studies he spent time at Naval Medical Center San Diego, working as a team leader and facilitator, helping to develop their Cancer Center of Excellence.
In his meetings with staff and managers since arriving at the MCC in December, Bobby has been impressed with the commitment here to providing exceptional care for patients.
“I knew the Moores Cancer Center’s reputation for excellence before I signed on, and in every interaction I’ve had here, that reputation has been reaffirmed,” he said. “I’m proud to be here. This is a winning team of professionals who care about their patients, and who practice patient-and family-centered care. I share the staff’s commitment to continuously improving the patient experience and I look forward to working with everyone towards this goal.”
Bobby’s office is located on the 2nd floor, in Room 2216, across from the staff kitchen. He can be reached at bocherry@ucsd.edu, or 858-822-6261.
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Ben Thinnes Leads Oncology Nursing
Ben Thinnes, MSN, MHA, RN, the new Assistant Director of Oncology Nursing Services at Moores Cancer Center, sees lots of stars at the Cancer Center.
“We have so many people doing fantastic work, taking care of patients and conducting exciting research,” he says. “Part of my job is helping to find ways for people to work together more effectively, and also making sure that nursing is at the table when we are discussing how to improve our patient services.”
In this new position, Ben will provide administrative oversight of nursing practice, quality and performance improvement, and provide regulatory support to a number of clinical and administrative departments at MCC.
He was recruited from the Performance Improvement and Patient Safety (PIPS) Department at the UCSD Medical Center, where he managed clinical improvement initiatives. He has also served as a charge nurse and administrative nurse in the Medical Center’s Critical Care Unit.
Ben’s office is in Room 2215, and he can be reached at 858-822-6258 or bthinnes@ucsd.edu.
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Translational and Clinical Pilot Projects Awarded
Congratulations to the awardees of the 2011 Translational and Clinical Pilot Project grants. Funding was offered to faculty members of the Moores Cancer Center to stimulate scientific collaboration, mentorship of junior investigators, and translational and clinical research projects related to the prevention, diagnosis or treatment of cancer. The following four projects were selected for $50,000 grants:
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Sonia Ancoli-Israel, PhD
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co-PI Teresa Helsten, MD
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“Feasibility of prophylactic treatment of sleep/fatigue before and during chemotherapy for breast cancer”
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Olivier Harismendy, PhD
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co-PI Andrew Lowy, MD
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“Identification of somatic exon mutations in adenocarcinoma of the appendix by whole exome sequencing of tumor and matched germline samples”
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Bob S. Carter, MD, PhD
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co-PI Seogkyoung Kong, PhD
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“Combined Chimeric T-cell Receptor Therapy in the Treatment of Glioma”
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Dwayne Stupack, PhD
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co-PI Tony Reid, MD, PhD
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“Selective Targeting of Chemoresistant Ovarian Cancer with TAV-1219”
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Liver Clinic Opens at MCC
The UC San Diego Health System’s Liver Clinic provides comprehensive care to approximately 5,000 patients with acute and chronic liver disease. Beginning in December, 2011, patients being treated for liver cancer are now being seen at the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center in a multidisciplinary treatment center. The joining of multidisciplinary expertise within the same clinic will provide patients with one place for their liver cancer care, offering them all options for treatment. Specialists in fields including, hepatology, surgical oncology, medical oncology, interventional radiology and liver transplantation will be available to see and treat patients in this new clinic.
To schedule an appointment, call 619-543-5415 or fax a referral with a “Liver Cancer” note to 619-543-5717. Patients will be scheduled within 2 weeks.
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MCC Goes to Freiberg
Cancer Center Interim Director Thomas Kipps, MD, PhD, was the keynote speaker at the Freiberg Scientific Meeting on Experimental CLL Research, held in November. Laura Rassenti, PhD, and Liguang Chen, PhD from MCC were also invited speakers. The international meeting is held by the Freiburg-based Research Consortium “Receptor Signalling and Comparative Genomics in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia,” supported by the German Aid Foundation. The consortium’s goal is to bring renowned CLL researchers from around the world to share their research results.
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Moores Researchers Note Troubling Trend in Smoking Cessation
Smoking is a major public health issue and quitting is the single most important thing smokers can do to improve their health. In the 2012 edition of the Annual Review of Public Health, Moores Cancer Center researchers reviewed the landscape of smoking cessation over the past 20 years. During this time period, there have been improvements in pharmaceutical medications to aid cessation, and free telephone cessation coaching has become available in every state. However, recent trends in smoking cessation are troubling to tobacco control researchers. Evidence suggests that part of the problem may lie in how cessation aids are marketed by pharmaceutical companies: 
many such ads suggest that quitting smoking may be as simple as putting on a patch. It appears that younger smokers in particular are now more likely to underestimate the amount of work needed in order to quit smoking successfully.
The research team included John P. Pierce, PhD, (photo right) Professor of Family and Preventive Medicine and director of Population Sciences at the MCC; Sharon E. Cummins, PhD; Martha M. White, Aimee Humphrey and Karen Messer, PhD. (more)
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Meet Our New Members
John Adamson, MD
Clinical Professor
Department of Medicine
Hematologic Malignancies Program
Dr. Adamson manages patients with hematological malignancies (myeloma; MDS). Past research focused on the use of hematopoietic growth factors in the treatment of cancer chemotherapy-related anemia. His is interested in the research done by members of the Cancer Center, especially in those areas that could provide attractive training opportunities for individuals coming through our Hematology/Oncology Fellowship program. (Research Summary)
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Neal Devaraj, PhD
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Chemistry/Biochemistry
Tumor Growth, Invasion and Metastasis Program
Dr. Devaraj focuses on developing novel molecular imaging agents that target cancer specific biomarkers. His lab is particularly interested in imaging the A33 glycoprotein over-expressed in a majority of colon cancers. (Research Summary)
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Peter Ernst, DVM, PhD
Professor
Department of Pathology
Cancer Biology Program
Dr. Ernst studies the immunopathogenesis of the premalignant changes that lead to gastric cancer associated with H. pylori infection. He is interested in inflammation and gastrointestinal cancers, and in regulatory T cells and how they can be controlled to enhance tumor immunity. As a member of the veterinary community he is also interested in linking up new therapies for testing in animal models of naturally occurring tumors to see if this is enhances the predictive value of which therapies will work in humans. (Research Summary)
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Seogkyoung Kong, PhD
Assistant Project Scientist
Department of Surgery Cancer Biology Program
Dr. Kong is interested in the genetic modification of T-cells to target tumors. Specifically he is studying chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapies, in which T-cells are redirected to target tumor antigens by introduction of a genetically engineered T-cell receptor. (Research Summary)
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Elena Martinez, PhD
Professor
Dept. of Family and Preventive Medicine Co-Leader, Reducing Cancer Disparities Program
Dr. Martinez’s research interests relate to a wide array of issues in cancer prevention and control. Her primary discipline is cancer epidemiology, with a special focus on cancer disparities.(Research Summary)
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Jesse Nodora, DrPH
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Family and Preventive Medicine Reducing Cancer Disparities Program
Dr. Nodora’s focus is on primary cancer prevention among poor and underserved populations, with an emphasis on behavior change and maintenance among individuals, as well as system and environmental change.(Research Summary)
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Annette von Drygalski, MD, PharmD
Assistant Clinical Professor
Department of Medicine Director, Hemophilia and Thrombosis Research Center
Hematological Malignancies Program
Dr. von Drygalski is interested in basic, translational and clinical science in the field of hemostasis and thrombosis. Her basic research focus is the development of bypassing treatment strategies and mechanisms of fibrinolysis in hemophilia. Her clinical trials efforts address 1) the evolving needs of aging patients with hemophilia, such as cardiovascular and joint disease, osteoporosis and 2) investigating long-acting or novel clotting factor products in international trials. Concepts for clinical investigations of venous thromboembolism and cancer are in development.(Research Summary)
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