Posts tagged ‘cancer research’
CEO Perspectives: Funding for Health Sciences Research
Below is an excerpt from the April 2012 edition of Perspectives, a monthly electronic newsletter from Harold L. Paz, M.D., chief executive officer, Penn State Hershey Medical Center, senior vice president for health affairs, Penn State, and dean, Penn State College of Medicine.
Harold L. Paz, M.D., M.S.
Conducting research is one of the key missions of any academic health center, and it’s a fundamental characteristic that distinguishes institutions like Penn State Hershey from other hospitals in the community. But biomedical research is expensive, and increasingly, researchers are having difficulty getting even the most excellent proposals funded. This challenge has become especially acute since the economic downturn in 2008. Government support for research is being cut back not only at the federal level, but also by many states, including Pennsylvania. In addition, many private sources of support for research – including philanthropic foundations and non-profit organizations – have reduced the amount of funding available, in response to the reduced value of their endowments or diminished philanthropic support these organizations rely on.
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THON Photo Slideshow
The 2011 proceeds from THON—the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon—once again topped a previous record and raised a staggering $9.56 million to benefit The Four Diamonds Fund at Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital. The 46-hour event that ran from Friday evening through Sunday afternoon is the culmination of a yearlong fundraising effort by thousands of Penn State students at campuses across the state.
Some other THON numbers that are equally as impressive as the final tally:
- 708 students were selected as dancers.
- 11 bands provided entertainment to help sustain the dancers’ energy throughout the weekend.
- 240 families supported by The Four Diamonds Fund at Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital participated in THON weekend.
- 10,409 THON donation cans were distributed throughout the year.
Here is a sampling of photos from the weekend event that helps Children’s Hospital faculty and staff meet their daily mission of providing top-notch, comprehensive care to children and their families and finding tomorrow’s cures for pediatric cancers.
Slide show photos were contributed by faculty, staff, students, Penn State friends, and Four Diamonds families, including: Michael Verderame, Andrea Horne, Savannah Smith, Jackie Miller, Judy Hoch, Conrad Gast, Jeffrey Drexel, Celeste Negley, Cheryl Kretz, Lauren Lubus, Beth Garrigan, Matt, Steph, and Lindsay Smith, Shayne Beecher, Debbie Eslinger, Darik Kirschman, Tammy Cope, Rachel Pantalone, Sharon Otstott, Kim Keim, Cunningham, The Bush family, Steph Beyer, Connie Strayer, Chrissy Derr, Anne Morrow, Laura Trimble and Kathy Setlock.
Additional photos from throughout the weekend are available at http://live.psu.edu. For photos from Friday, visit http://live.psu.edu/stilllife/2431; from Saturday, visit http://live.psu.edu/stilllife/2433 and from Sunday visit http://live.psu.edu/stilllife/2434. Collected photos from throughout the weekend can be found at http://live.psu.edu/stilllife/2432.
David Mu, Ph.D., takes aim at lung cancer
By the time lung cancer is diagnosed, it’s often too far along to cure. Right now, lung cancer kills more Americans than any other kind of cancer. Still, David Mu, Ph.D., an associate professor of pathology in the Departments of Pathology, Biochemistry, and Molecular Biology, believes that a strong collaboration among basic scientists, clinical researchers, and treating clinicians is the key to stopping this complex disease in its tracks.
Since his arrival at Penn State College of Medicine two years ago, Mu’s laboratory work has focused on the actions of three mutated genes—TTF1, NKX2.8 and PAX9—and how they promote the development of lung tumors. In recent years, Mu, who previously worked in the biotechnology industry, linked these three genes to lung cancer.
What’s become clear since then, he says, is that mapping out the chain of events by which they are activated could help yield new drug combinations far more potent than therapies that take a more generic approach. (more…)
The finding — and following — of a killer (T-cell)
To really appreciate this story, we have to start at the end—simply put, there are people alive today because of a discovery made by an oncology fellow in the mid 1980s. And not just alive-these people are doing well, living healthy and full lives, sometimes symptom-free, because one doctor, Thomas P. Loughran Jr., M.D., professor of medicine and director, Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute, noticed something that no one else did.
“He’s a super doctor,” says George Graham of Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, one of Loughran’s patients who was unable to find appropriate treatment for large granular lymphocyte (LGL) leukemia at other facilities.
Loughran came to discovering LGL through what might be considered standard detective work—he reviewed patient labs and blood smears and kept looking. During a rotation at the University of Washington, Loughran saw a patient who was referred to the chief resident with an unknown illness and a history of recurrent fevers and infections. Upon reviewing the patient’s blood smear, Loughran was the first to notice that the patient’s white cells were granular lymphocytes that were larger than they should be. After reviewing the previous five years of records of the hematopathology laboratory directed by Marshall Kadin, M.D., he realized that other patients with similar histories also had the unusual white cell appearance. Loughran and Kadin went on to publish their discovery and subsequent research in the Annals of Internal Medicine. (more…)
College of Medicine genomics facility leads the way in identifying new medical pathways
Bioanalyzer 2100. Nanodrop ND1000. BeadXpress. SpectraMax 2. Denator Stabilizor.
No, these aren’t weapons from an episode of Star Trek–they’re a sampling of the sophisticated equipment in the Functional Genomics Core Facility at Penn State College of Medicine.
Under Assistant Professor of Pharmacology and Director Willard Freeman, Ph.D., the facility has become one of the nation’s leading resources for the study of molecular biology. The facility’s mission is to better understand disease mechanisms and enable diagnosis at earlier and more preventable stages. The facility itself is a prime example of how medicine has evolved from a “treat and wait” approach towards personalized medicine. While most of the nation’s leading educational medical centers have similar facilities, Penn State’s facility has developed a reputation for being at the forefront of exploration into this relatively uncharted medical landscape.
Continue Reading July 1, 2010 at 6:00 pm pennstatemedicine 1 comment
