Greetings on a brilliant late winter Saturday afternoon. Our lab submitted a couple of papers this past week, and our fingers are now crossed. Wednesday was notable for the first post-COVID “Lunch with Lou,” where I met with our early career faculty council under the auspices of our cancer center’s DEI program. We went through their thoughtful agenda of questions, and I came away energized and hopeful for the future of cancer research.
Right after that, the Cancer Host Interactions (CHI) program meeting featured a presentation by Chul Kim regarding the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors in HIV-positive patients with non-small cell lung cancer. Interestingly, Chul has found that HIV positive patients can respond well to these inhibitors, with acceptable toxicities as well. Chul epitomizes a translationally oriented clinical investigator, with the depth to meaningfully team up with Georgetown Lombardi scientists. He has great collaborations to incorporate imaging mass cytometry with Marta Catalfamo.
I then hurried over to the Fischer Colloquium in the McDonough School of Business for the 2024 Innovation Awards Ceremony. Recent patentees received plaques or glass statues (including our own Jill Smith), and there were several wonderful speakers, including the Commissioner of the U.S. Patent Office. It was a lovely ceremony, and it highlighted the significant innovation coming out the institution as a whole, and from the cancer center in particular.
Finally, the 2024 resident match took place on Friday. All four of our graduating MD/PhD students matched at wonderful institutions: Jerry Xiao at UCSF (Internal Medicine), Irfan Khan at Cedars Sinai (Radiation Oncology), Joey Posner at Johns Hopkins (Pediatric Neurology) and Joshua McCall at Vanderbilt (Neurology). You may know one or more of these wonderful students, and I am certain you share in my congratulations to them and to Todd Waldman, who has organized a very successful program. Having had the opportunity to mentor two MD/PhD student in my lab who went on to top internal medicine residency programs, it is clear that Georgetown is able to attract and support budding superstars. Congratulations to this year’s graduating class!
Stay safe and be well.
Lou
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