UCI cancer center gets $18 million...

UCI cancer center gets $18 million in grants

UC Irvine will soon begin testing a possible cervical cancer

vaccine, evaluating a failed chemotherapy drug’s ability to prevent

colon cancer and placing a greater emphasis on discovering new

anti-cancer drugs will begin soon, thanks to three National Cancer

Institute grants given to UC Irvine.

The Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, the only center in

Orange County to carry the cancer institute’s “comprehensive”

designation, received more than $18 million in grants:

* $11.5 million to renew for 4.5 years the cancer center’s

central focus of treating patients with cancer; educating the public

about the risks and treatments and preventive measures against

cancer; and finding new ways to combat these diseases;

* $4.4 million to study how well two chemicals combine to prevent

colon cancer; and

* $2.2 million to test a proposed cervical cancer vaccine.

“The increase in the [grant] will allow us to develop new

therapeutic trials for a number of different cancers based on

scientific advances made by our investigators and faculty at UCI. The

awards for the colon and cervix studies demonstrate how UCI Medical

Center has continued to evolve into a major academic medical center

in the last few years,” said Dr. Frank Meyskens, center director and

professor of medicine at the College of Medicine.

The colon cancer trial will test whether two chemicals -- DFMO and

sulindac -- can prevent cancer in 400 people who are at risk of

developing the disease. Meyskens and his colleagues have worked with

DFMO for the past 12 years. The chemical showed promise in smaller

tests as an agent that could prevent colon cancer from developing.

Each year, about 135,000 Americans are diagnosed with colon cancer

and 56,000 people die from the disease.

The cervical cancer trial will test how well an experimental

vaccine prevents the most common form of the disease. The vaccine

works directly against the virus HPV, which is associated strongly

with cervical cancer. The trial will enroll about 130 women. While not as prevalent as colon cancer, it is still deadly: 15,000 women

develop cervical cancer each year and about 3,000 die from it.

The National Cancer Institute awarded the center its most

prestigious designation of “comprehensive” in 1997. Health care

providers there treat and diagnose cancers and offer educational and

research programs for more than 5 million people in Southern

California.

The center includes 152 faculty members from UCI. About 2,000

persons take part in research each year. The center works closely

with UCI’s General Clinical Research Center on developing and

conducting clinical trials.

People interested in either study should call (888) 456-7067.

Approved trials, including those involving cancer, are available on

UCI Medical Center’s Web site at www.ucihealth.com/trials.

Top immunologist to join UCI in 2003

Dr. Paolo Casali, one of the nation’s top immunologists, whose

research has revealed key information about human immune response to

cancer and viral diseases, has joined the UC Irvine faculty as the

Donald Bren Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry and

Medicine.

At UCI, Casali will direct the new Center for Immunology, a joint

and integrated program created by the School of Biological Sciences

and the College of Medicine.

The center, which will be in the new Hewitt Hall, is designed to

consolidate and expand immunology research efforts in the biological

sciences and medicine throughout the UCI campus. Casali will hold a

joint appointment in the Department of Molecular Biology and

Biochemistry and the Department of Medicine.

Casali comes to UCI from Cornell University Weill Medical College

and Graduate School of Medical Sciences in New York, where he has

been a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and a professor

of microbiology and immunology.

“This is terrific news for the campus,” said Sue Bryant, dean of

the School of Biological Sciences. “Immunology is a core discipline

that affects our ability to make progress in other fields, including

cancer, and diseases of the nervous system and vasculature. With the

strong program in immunology that Dr. Casali will develop, our

ability to recruit excellent clinician/scientists in other

disciplines will be greatly enhanced.”

Casali discovered how certain viruses such as measles and

influenza impair the function of various immune cells. This

observation revealed the mechanisms that suppress immune response to

certain viral infections. In another finding, he identified a group

of B cells that generate specific self-binding antibodies linked with

autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus

A native of Italy, Casali received his medical degree from the

University of Milan in 1974. He came to the United States in 1980 to

become a research associate at the Scripps Research Institute in La

Jolla, before joining the U.S. Department of Health and Human

Services as a senior staff fellow. In 1990, he was named the Kaplan

Cancer Scholar at the New York University School of Medicine, and he

joined the faculty at Cornell University Weill Medical College in

1994.

Casali’s appointment starts at the beginning of 2003.

Internet voting expert will speak at UCI

UC Irvine will begin its fourth annual Chancellor’s Distinguished

Fellows Series on Tuesday with a presentation on the transition to

electronic and Internet voting.

The presentation will be given by David R. Jefferson, who has

served as chair of the technical committee of the California

secretary of state’s task force on Internet voting and has been

conducting research on Internet and electronic voting since 1994.

Jefferson also played a major role in convincing California, as

well as other states, to pass laws requiring campaign finance

disclosure information to be filed electronically instead of on

paper.

The presentation will start at 5 p.m. Tuesday and will be held in

the McDonnell-Douglas Engineering Auditorium at the UCI campus.

Newport schools will host fund-raisers

Lincoln Elementary School will hold its “Calypso on the Coast”

fund-raiser from 7 p.m. to midnight on Friday at the Hyatt Newporter.

The evening will include live and silent auctions, dinner and

dancing.

Harbor View Elementary School will hold a silent/live auction,

dinner and dancing event on Nov. 9. The theme is Viva Las Vegas. For

more information, contact Jan Varner at (949)644-4022.

Grant allows UCI to focus on schizophrenia

Brain images from hundreds of people with schizophrenia will be

shared among 10 research sites nationwide, partially coordinated by

UC Irvine, in a first-of-its-kind research project funded with $10.9

million from the National Center for Research Resources, a branch of

the National Institutes of Health.

The project will create an extensive and unique database of brain

information that is expected to expand our understanding of disabling

brain illnesses such as schizophrenia and speed the development of

new treatments.

The federal grant was awarded to the joint General Clinical

Research Center of UC Irvine and UC San Diego. The center will

coordinate the nationwide effort to link and share vast amounts of

computerized data from brain images of people who have schizophrenia.

In addition, researchers participating in the project will create

standardized, powerful discovery tools for future large population

brain studies.

Although brain imaging technology has generated remarkable

progress in understanding how mental and neurological diseases

develop, it has been nearly impossible for one laboratory to share

and compare findings with other labs. A lack of coordinated networks

for sharing data, plus limitations in compatible computer hardware

and software, have isolated scientists, barring them from

collaborative efforts that could provide the large database of brain

images needed for a comprehensive look at brain dysfunction.

Dr. Steven G. Potkin, UCI professor of psychiatry, will lead the

new three-year investigation.