SAN ANTONIO, Aug. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Two leading preclinical and translational scientists from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee and a hematologic researcher from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in New York will assume pivotal positions at the Cancer Therapy & Research Center’s Institute for Drug Development.
Joining to co-direct the IDD Preclinical Research Department effective September 1 are Jennifer S. Carew, PhD, and Stephen T. Nawrocki, PhD, both from St. Jude. In addition to handling the departmental operations, they will establish new research initiatives and collaborations. Among them will be small animal imaging and specialized animal models that focus on the mechanisms of action by novel anti-cancer agents.
Coming to the IDD as a clinical investigator and director of hematologic malignancies for the Phase I program is Swaminathan Padmanabhan, MD, an investigator who has led more than a dozen important clinical study protocols and published in multiple professional journal reviews. Padmanabhan’s position is a new one, created to focus on the development of new drugs for hematologic malignancies including leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma.
In making the announcements, Karen K. Fields, MD, president and CEO of CTRC, said, “The IDD is one of the most important drug development programs in the world. Its main strength lies in the quality of our researchers and I am proud that our outstanding reputation continues to attract both clinical and preclinical scientists that rank internationally among the best in their fields.”
Over the past 18 months, CTRC has accelerated acquisition of eminent scientists and researchers to keep pace with its rapidly expanding areas of treatment and study. Foremost among them is Francis J. Giles, MB, MD, FRCPI, FRCPath, who came from M. D. Anderson Cancer Center to be director and AT&T Chair of the IDD. Giles also serves as chief of the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
Hiring the three new researchers, Giles said, “is a major step forward in the expansion of the capabilities of the IDD. World-class scientists like these are, indeed, a major step forward for the San Antonio Cancer Institute program. We will continue to expand the pre-clinical, translational, and clinical programs in response to our broadening pipeline of investigational agents and the increasing numbers of patients being treated here.”
Carew, who will co-direct the IDD Preclinical Research Department, earned her B.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and conducted her PhD dissertation research at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
A recipient of the prestigious Postdoctoral Research Grant from the American Cancer Society, Carew previously worked with numerous distinguished experimental therapeutics investigators including Giles. Additionally, she has authored a number of scientific articles in highly respected scientific journals including Blood, Leukemia, Cancer Research, and EMBO Journal.
Carew’s research interests and scientific expertise include identification of novel targets for cancer therapy, oxidative stress in cancer, and the preclinical pharmacology of experimental cancer therapeutics with a focus on hematological malignancies.
Complementing Carew’s interests and competencies in the IDD Preclinical Research Department, Nawrocki has expertise in toxicology and pharmacology models used in the development of drugs with a focus on their mechanisms of action in solid tumors. His research interests include the identification and validation of anticancer strategies for chemorefractory malignancies, mechanisms of cell death, and modulation of gene transcription for therapeutic benefit.
Nawrocki graduated from the University of Mississippi with a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences and the University of Memphis with a master’s degree in toxicology. He earned his doctorate in biomedical sciences from The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center where his work focused on mechanisms of proteasome inhibitor-induced tumor cell death. He continued to investigate experimental cancer therapeutics during his postdoctoral fellowship at St. Jude.
Nawrocki also has received several fellowships in recognition of his research and has published in prestigious scientific journals including Cancer Research, Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, and Blood.
Padmanabhan, who holds multiple professional memberships around the world, is the recipient of numerous honors in medicine and research including awards by the American Society for Clinical Oncology and jointly by the ACS and the American Association for Cancer Research.
A graduate of Bangalore Medical College in India, he completed residencies both in India and at Wayne State University in Detroit where he was chief medical resident. Padmanabhan then completed a fellowship in hematology/oncology at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center of University of Miami in Florida.
Located in San Antonio, Texas, the Cancer Therapy and Research Center (CTRC) is one of the nation’s leading academic research and treatment centers, serving more than 4.4 million people in the high-growth corridor of Central and South Texas including Austin, San Antonio, Laredo, and the Rio Grande Valley. CTRC, through its research partnership with the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA), created the San Antonio Cancer Institute (SACI), one of a few elite cancer centers in the country to be named a National Cancer Institute (NCI) Designated Cancer Center, and is one of three in Texas. CTRC handles more than 120,000 patient visits each year and is a world leader in developing new drugs to treat cancer. The CTRC Institute for Drug Development (IDD) is internationally recognized for conducting the largest oncology Phase I clinical drug trials program in the world, and participated in the clinical and/or preclinical development of 20 of the cancer drugs most recently approved by the Food & Drug Administration. For more information visit our website at http://www.ctrc.net.
Contact: Jill Byrd
Cancer Therapy & Research Center (210) 450-5550
Cancer Therapy & Research Center
CONTACT: Jill Byrd of Cancer Therapy & Research Center, +1-210-450-5550
Web site: http://www.ctrc.net//
