Category: Administration

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Administration Outreach

Balancing Work and Play

I hope you enjoyed a restful holiday weekend and a productive week.

I spent the first part of the week in Jamaica participating in the Breast Cancer Think Tank, a wonderful conference packed full of interesting data. I was joined by other Lombardi faculty: Craig Jordan; Anton Wellstein; Michael Johnson and Bob Clarke. The sessions are organized like a Gordon Conference, with great content in the mornings and evenings, leaving the afternoons free for diving, golf, or whatever other warm-weather activity you’d want.

I presented an update on our siRNA libraries we use to identify determinants of survival in breast cancer cells, and thoroughly enjoyed listening to talks from my colleagues around the country.  Even though I am still on the mend from the persistent respiratory infection I’ve been battling for nearly two weeks, I made it through my presentation in one piece.

Perhaps more miraculously, I also managed to shoot an 82 on the golf course—my personal best score. I have witnesses, namely the other members of my foursome: Joe Gray from UCSF; Steve Shak from Genomic Health; and Shaomeng Wang from University of Michigan. The lesson I learned is that I should never play with my own clubs and golf shoes again, the rental clubs and sneakers seemed to produce a much better outcome. Despite a great game, I think I’ll keep my day job.  

And my day job is keeping me busy. I came back a few days early from Jamaica to attend a meeting with President DeGioia to discuss fundraising activities. I have also begun to interact more closely with our MedStar colleagues on a regional strategy for oncology service delivery. I’ve attended one major strategic meeting and several smaller operational ones.

Believe it or not, we are already ramping up in preparation for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, a two-day event April 30-May 1 that raises awareness and funds to combat breast cancer. Avon is an important partner for Lombardi and the Capital Breast Care Center, and the cause is certainly a priority for us, so it’s essential that we have a strong Lombardi showing. If you are interested in walking as part of the Lombardi team or helping cheer the team on, contact Jeanne Mandelblatt at mandelbj@georgetown.edu. You’ll be hearing more about this in the months to come.

That’s all for now. Enjoy your weekend!

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Administration

Announcing a New Addition to Lombardi’s Senior Leadership

I am delighted to announce that Yu Shyr, Ph.D., an extremely well-regarded cancer-focused biostatistician and informatician, will be joining Georgetown University Medical Center and Georgetown Lombardi effective this July.  I look forward to welcoming Dr. Shyr as he assumes his new roles as chair of the Department of Biostatistics, Bioinformatics and Biomathematics (DBBB), as director of Lombardi’s Biostatistics & Bioinformatics Shared Resource and as founding associate director for quantitative biology.

Dr. Shyr is currently chief of the Division of Cancer Biostatistics and director/founder of the Cancer Biostatistics Center at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC). Throughout his career, he has been instrumental in positioning biostatistics as an essential scientific collaborative discipline that enriches basic science, translational research, data analysis and clinical trials.

Yu Shyr, PhD
Yu Shyr, PhD

Dr. Shyr has a very impressive record of scientific accomplishment. His CV lists 234 peer-reviewed publications, and he has secured substantial funding for his work over the course of his career. He was honored with election to the American Statistical Association in 2010. His current research interests have included traditional multivariate analysis, with an emphasis on the analysis of high-dimensional data. He is also active in the statistical design and analysis of clinical trials.

In addition to his research, Dr. Shyr has built an impressive record of academic leadership, earning accolades from students for his teaching and mentorship in biostatistics, epidemiological methods and clinical trial design and analysis.

I expect his vast scientific expertise, his demonstrated leadership and his commitment to building consensus will prove tremendous assets to the work of Lombardi and GUMC investigators. Needless to say, he will be critically important as we move towards the resubmission of our Cancer Center Support Grant application.

There will be ample opportunity in the coming months to learn more about Dr. Shyr and for him to meet many Lombardi members before he officially starts in July.

I also wish to take this opportunity to thank Chris Loffredo for his stellar stewardship of the DBBB as interim chair of the department. Not surprisingly, Chris has provided steady leadership for DBBB members, and I look forward to continuing to work with him in his ongoing role as program leader of Lombardi’s Carcinogenesis, Biomarkers and Epidemiology program.

Enjoy your weekend!

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Administration Events Research

Power of Perseverance

Greetings from sunny San Diego.  I am here for the 20th IBC Antibody Engineering Meeting.  It is incredible to witness the growth of the field.  In 1990 there was one clinically approved monoclonal antibody, and many people derided researchers in the field for hitching their wagon to the wrong horse.  Now, there are 28 approved antibodies, yielding over $37 billion in yearly revenues.  Nearly half of all cancer drug sales are for antibodies.

When I think back on the early IBC meetings, I remember being part of a hardy band of idealistic pioneers, mixed with some zealots and a handful of opportunists.  There were more perceived valleys than peaks, but we persevered, and somehow, when we weren’t paying close enough attention, the field absolutely blossomed.  On Thursday, I chaired a session and spoke in another; one speaker after another presented exciting preclinical data, mixed with clinical trials demonstrating the utility of existing agents and the extraordinary results that are being obtained in the clinic with new agents.

The power of persistence, patience and belief in the future is underestimated, but should never be overlooked.  When I think of many events in the communal life of our cancer center, I am deeply appreciative of all of Lombardi’s visionaries who have simply persevered, and converted their innovation, hard work and collegiality into a remarkable success story that is still in progress.  And, I can most certainly assure you that the best is yet to come.

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Administration CCSG Research

Announcing Lombardi’s New Organizational Structure

Dear Colleagues:

As you know by now, we have been engaged in a process to modify our program structures so that we can respond effectively to the CCSG critique that resulted from our competitive submission in May, 2009. This process has involved many of you, and I am grateful for the many helpful suggestions and comments that I received. The exact names of the programs might change over the next month or so, but this general organization will be retained.

I am especially grateful to all of the program leaders who have served Lombardi during the recent CCSG submission and review process. They represented us and our science with dedication and worked very hard to accurately portray the science we do together. However, the process of peer review is rigorous and at times unforgiving, and in the reorganization and prioritization of our collaborative research activities some changes in program leadership were necessary.

The program designations (remember, the actual titles are still tentative) and program leaders are described below. CET represents a trimmed down and refocused evolution of the former 3DT program, and MO encompasses elements of the former MTTR, GRC and 3DT programs.

Program Leader
Breast Cancer (BC) Bob Clarke, Claudine Isaacs
Clinical & Experimental Therapeutics (CET) John Marshall, TBN
Molecular Oncology (MO) Jeff Toretsky
Cancer Control (CC) Marc Schwartz
Carcinogenesis, Biomarkers & Epidemiology (CBE) Chris Loffredo

Over the next month the program leaders will work together and with program membership to identify the 2-4 major themes that define each of their programs, and will establish interest groups around those themes. Leaders of each interest group will be identified and will function thereafter as program co-leaders. I fully expect that while each interest group will have a specific “home program,” some interest group members may be primarily based in other programs. This will stimulate inter-programmatic collaborations. These interest groups will meet regularly and will become collaborative scientific entities that spawn the specific aims of our next CCSG submission. During this time, some Lombardi members will be invited to switch their primary program affiliations based on the new programmatic emphases that emerge from this process.

This is a real opportunity to develop an organizational structure that accurately reflects the science we do, and positions us to successfully compete for multi-investigator grants. I look forward to this process with excitement.

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Administration Events Outreach Research

Some news to make us feel proud

This past week, the fifth floor of the Research Building got a bit brighter. If you haven’t been up in the past few days, you should come see the cheerful display of paintings outside Suite E501 done by Nevin Bossart, one of the Arts and Humanities Program’s most prominent art teachers. His vibrant depictions of flowers make the space feel more like home for me—and with good reason!  Harriet and I actually have one of Nevin’s works hanging in our home. It is a painting of a specific castle in Ireland. I decided I had to own this particular piece because I saw it hanging in the Lombardi lobby just about four days after I returned from a trip to Ireland, where I had visited the very same castle! Some things are just meant to be.

On Tuesday, the National Research Council released the Data-Based Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs. Lombardi’s Tumor Biology Ph.D. program rated very highly — more to come on that. Congratulations to all who are involved for having your work recognized so prominently.
I appreciate the excellent turnout and lively interchange at last week’s Sector Meeting and Town Hall. We had quite a bit of important business to discuss, as you can see, and I look forward to keeping you updated through regular correspondence and conversation. I am sorry to have missed Craig Jordan’s first Research Seminar on Wednesday, but was representing Lombardi at the Georgetown University Executive Committee meeting all day.

Stay tuned for announcements regarding the official G-DOC launch this month. After all you have been hearing about this tremendous tool, you’ll have the opportunity to see it in action—and find out how it is relevant to your work—at our launch symposium on October 26, from 2-4 pm, in the New Research Building Auditorium.

I’m looking forward to welcoming October this weekend—always a beautiful month here. I hope you have a nice weekend as well!

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Administration CCSG

Personal milestone, professional progress

I hope everyone is enjoying this amazing fall-like weather!

This past week marked a personal milestone for me—I became a grandfather for the first time! My grandson, Isaac Solomon Fertig, was born on Saturday, September 11, weighing in at 6 pounds, 13 ounces.  Isaac, our daughter Elana and her husband Ben are doing great. As is the right of any self-respecting new grandfather, I have attached a few pictures.

In other good news, we received the official notice this week that our Comprehensive Cancer Center status has been renewed through the next CCSG term. While this was not a surprise, it is an affirmative reminder of the caliber of the work we do here, and of the company we keep.  Sometimes those facts get lost in the hustle and bustle of everyday life.  There is much to be proud of at Lombardi.

We kicked off our response to the NCI’s CCSG critique this week with a vibrant planning meeting of our program directors. The objective was to have participants present their ideas on how we can improve upon our program structure to best organize our science. For the purposes of this discussion, basically nothing was off the table. We discussed ways we could combine or realign our existing programs in ways that specifically and strategically address the CCSG critiques, promote collaboration and showcase our unique strengths.  This meeting was highly productive and many excellent ideas were proposed and debated. I plan to select a candidate program structure by the end of the month, and will discuss it at the upcoming Town Hall on September 28 at noon. This structure will be fleshed out to include major themes and suggested allocations of program members and then presented to a group of by external advisors that includes our ESAC. Once we have agreed upon the changes that will be made we will present the modified structure to the NCI Cancer Center Program for review and comment.

Have a great weekend!

Categories
Administration CCSG

End-of-Summer Update: Looking ahead to challenges and opportunities that await

I hope everybody had an enjoyable summer, and had the chance to recharge their batteries a bit. While I have been pretty busy over the past few months I took a bit of time off in August as well, so I am long overdue for a blog entry. My recent trip to South Korea was remarkable and fascinating, and I’ve posted a couple of photos here for your enjoyment. It was nice to find a Phillies fan at a baseball game in Seoul, and although the shirt was the wrong color, he apparently (and most probably, unknowingly) roots for the “right” football team, too! Although I was called back early from my trip due to a family emergency that fortunately resolved, I have returned to work feeling energized, focused and ready for a busy fall season.

As I’ve previously communicated, we were notified unofficially a few months ago that our CCSG funding would be reduced by 50% and that the grant would be renewed for three years rather than the five years we had requested. In what came as no surprise, this week we received the confirmatory official notification of grant award from the NCI. So, we remain funded and have retained our Comprehensive status. However, we must plan to submit a competitive renewal in about two years.

Moving forward, our biggest and most immediate challenge will be to develop a decisive plan of action to respond to our recent CCSG evaluation. I have already begun this process, soliciting the help and input of leadership from Lombardi, GUMC, our External Scientific Advisory Board and the University. Over the coming months, we will work to address the specific criticisms raised by the site review team. I will need everyone’s help as we pull together in a process of honest and unflinching self-evaluation to ensure that our science and our organizational structure are strong and meet the expectations of the next set of CCSG reviewers.

I look forward to sharing more details about this process at our upcoming Town Hall meeting on September 28 at noon. Look out for reminders about the Town Hall in your inbox.

In other news, we have two new members of the Lombardi team to welcome. Lauren Wolkoff, our new director of communications, replaced Allison Whitney as of August 18. Lauren comes to us from Georgetown’s Office of Advancement, where she worked on the Marketing and Communications team to produce and edit GUMC fundraising materials. Among other projects, Lauren was also editor of Georgetown Medicine magazine. While she is not new to Georgetown, she is new to Lombardi so I encourage you to welcome her and fill her in on your projects. She can be reached at ext. 72960 or at lw263@georgetown.edu.

We are also happy to welcome Bob Brier as director of grant services for Lombardi. Bob will be filling the role previously held by Maureen McMahon, directing the pre-award process for all grants and contracts submitted by Lombardi PIs. Bob moved to Washington from Boston, where he previously worked as department administrator for the Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He also served as the administrative director for the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard School of Public Health. Bob started September 8; please stop by to welcome him. He can be reached at ext. 77787 or by email at rab262@georgetown.edu.

As you can see, there’s a lot going on right now. I look forward to connecting with many of you at the Town Hall later this month. Until then, enjoy the sense of renewal and excitement that comes with fall (not to mention the cooler weather!).

Categories
Administration

July 26th Faculty Meeting

I hope everyone is staying cool. When everyone told me that this city was built on a swamp, I thought it was a historical reference. Sadly, I now know my assumption was mistaken. Things are a bit quiet as people take their vacations, I sure have had no shortage of work to do! I’ll be taking a few weeks off to do some traveling in the second half of August so this will be my last blog post for a few weeks.

We have a Faculty Meeting scheduled for this coming Monday (July 26) at Noon in Warwick-Evans. We have a full agenda. As you know by now, Joe has agreed to take on the interim role as AVP of Development for the Medical Center as a search proceeds for Bill Bishop’s successor. While taking on these additional responsibilities, Joe will continue to oversee Lombardi’s fundraising efforts. He will provide a Development update at Monday’s meeting. We will welcome Lauren Wolcoff as our new Director of Communications; Lauren replaces Allison Whitney, who is now enjoying life in the City by the Bay. Lauren’s official start day will be August 18th. We look forward to welcoming her to Lombardi. John Deeken and John Marshall will provide updates on a new clinical care and clinical research initiative at Montgomery General Hospital that is being led by John Deeken. this is an exciting opportunity for us and I look forward to hearing about the progress that is being made.

Finally, I will give an update regarding the CCSG; I am sure many of you have questions. As I’ve mentioned earlier, we’ll have a Town Hall closer to the end of the summer to describe our plans to all interested parties for responding to the critique in more detail.

There will be lots to talk about, and I look forward seeing many of you there. In the meantime, have a great weekend.

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Administration Events Research

At the Avon Walk Finish Line

Our team at the finish line
Our team at the finish line

This is the last Avon Walk report you’ll hear from me for some time. But I want to share with you the good news that the Lombardi/CBCC team raised nearly $70,000 and was ranked 6th in terms of money raised going into the Walk. The team of walkers was fantastic and the cheering sections in front of the Hospital and by the finish line were potent reminders that Lombardi is a force to be reckoned with in this region when it comes to supporting breast cancer. Congratulations to all of the walkers and to the team’s co-captains, Jeanne Mandelblatt and my wife, Harriet. I want to particularly thank Jeanne for her dynamic leadership of the team. I also want to thank Gina DeLuca for her behind-the-scenes support throughout the planning process and Peter Shields for leadership of the medical team. Due to the unseasonably warm temperatures, there were many dehydrated and cramping walkers, some of whom had to be transported to local hospitals. While I wasn’t able to walk as much with the team, I was gratified that I am still able to recognize dehydration and order fluids.

I can tell you that the team is already planning next year’s walk and I hope my leg has healed a bit before then.

I went to visit Anton Wellstein a couple weeks ago to talk about some work we’re doing with siRNA library screening. We’ve identified new targets for intervention for pancreatic cancer. And as so often happens with Anton, a spirited scientific discussion arose. It turns out that we are using potentially complementary strategies that could readily be imagined in a program project grant application or other collaborative research grant. Our conversation reminded me about the diversity and depth of the research that we do here and the need to maintain open channels of communication to assure that we leverage our excellence wherever possible. For example, I was

Todd Waldmans Cancer Research Cover
Todd Waldman's Cancer Research Cover

talking with Mike Pishvaian on Monday morning about work he’s been doing with cdk4 inhibitors, building on his research showing that cdk4 interacts with smad3 in several cancer models. He remarked on Todd Waldman’s very nice recent paper in Cancer Research that ended up the cover story for that issue. Although Todd employed a glioblastoma model for his research, he used a reagent that Mike had suggested he employ.

Finally, it is with a mixture of regret and happiness that I have to report that Allison Whitney will be leaving us as of July 1. She has foolishly decided that her best future belongs in San Francisco, where she and her boyfriend will be moving to pursue new opportunities. The source of my regret is obvious, but I am happy for Allison that she is following her dreams. In her four years at Lombardi Allison has transformed the Communications Office and has dragged us (not always kicking and screaming) into the 21st century. Her work to create a modern and useful website will serve us well for many years to come. A search for her successor will commence shortly. Please join me in wishing Allison well as she transitions to her new life.

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Administration

Lombardi Magazine Launches New Online Format

The Lombardi Spotlight relaunches today as the new online version of Lombardi Magazine. Get a sneak peak at the design of Lombardi’s new web design and let us know what you think in the comments.

http://lombardi.georgetown.edu/magazine