Legacy – From the Desk of Dr. Louis M. Weiner

Out the Door

The completed CCSG renewal application (1243 pages of pure poetry) goes to the printer in less than 2 hours. What else is there to say?

It has been quite an experience and I am delighted to have shared it with so many of you over the past year. Unbelievably I managed to do some work on behalf of the cancer center in the midst of the surprisingly serene final days of sending out the grant.

On Monday morning I welcomed a remarkable group of investigators who attended a childhood cancer workshop host by Subha Madhavan. The workshop aimed to design a data portal to study pediatric malignancies. While I wasn’t able to attend all of it, great ideas were flying around the Warwick Evans conference room while I was there.

On Tuesday I paid a quick visit to the American Legacy Foundation open house to congratulate Dave Abrams on his accomplishments in establishing and staffing the Schroader Institute. I really look forward to seeing the Shroeder Institute and Lombardi work together to study and influence tobacco use.

Now that the core grant is (almost) out the door, I can turn my attention to finishing two RC2 grants, doing a couple of grant reviews for an upcoming P01 study section, and wrapping up the GUMC systems medicine design team deliberations in advance of an upcoming retreat. After wrestling the core grant into submission, everything else seems a bit easier in comparison.

Have a great Memorial Day holiday.

The Schroeder/Lombardi Cancer Control Consortium

When I first though of taking the position as Director of Lombardi, I was struck by the remarkably wide range of opportunities for Lombardi to connect with research enterprises within the Washington, DC area. Many of these enterprises are truly world class and it is important for Lombardi to take advantage of these opportunities.

The American Legacy Foundation and its Schroeder Institute represent one remarkable opportunity in that regard. The Legacy Foundation was formed as a result of the tobacco settlement and has played a major role in educating the public about the risks of tobacco smoking and nicotine addiction. The Schroeder Institute has become a remarkably impactful research enterprise at the Legacy Foundation. Led by Dave Abrams, a well-known tobacco control expert, the Schroeder Institute has a range of tobacco control research activities that fit extraordinarily well with Lombardi’s focus in both the Cancer Control and Carcinogenesis, Biomarkers, and Epidemiology programs.

This is a truly complementary collaboration in that the Schroeder Institute will provide Lombardi with the opportunities to expand more actively into prevention and other interventional studies, while Lombardi provides the Schroeder Institute with a clinical outlet for its efforts. I expect in the years to follow that many additional points of research collaboration will evolve.