Consortium for core grant gets first retreat, hears from two new programs

Science Article
July 3, 2002

(From left) Drs. Valeri Vasioukhin of Human Biology, Sue Biggins of Basic Sciences and Robert Hackman of Clinical Research talk with each other during a break. Photo by Lawrie Robertson.

By BARBARA BERG

More than 75 faculty and staff attended the Fred Hutchinson-University of Washington Consortium faculty re treat held June 24-25 at the Resort at Ludlow Bay in Port Ludlow.

The retreat was the first group event to highlight the consortium, the name given to the recent joint renewal application of the center's core grant from the National Cancer Institute, which funds a variety of collaborative research programs and scientific infrastructure.

Scientific sessions featured research talks by new faculty, including Drs. Nina Salama and Valeri Vasioukhin of the Human Biology Division, Dr. Linda Buck of the Basic Sciences Division, and Drs. Peter Gilbert and Dominik Wodarz of the Public Health Sciences Division.

In addition, overviews of interdisciplinary projects and state-of-the-art center research were presented.

Gretchen Carrougher, a UW nurse, lectured on the use of virtual reality in alleviating pain in patients with severe burn injuries.

In a final session, "Looking Ahead," two new scientific programs of the consortium introduced themselves:

Dr. Ray Monnat, UW professor of pathology, heads the program in Genome Instability and Mutagenesis, which focuses on understanding how chromosomes are protected from perpetuating DNA damage that can lead to cancer.

Dr. Janet Eary, director of nuclear medicine at UW, gave an overview of the program in Molecular Imaging, which includes the use of PET (positron emission tomography) scanning to diagnose tumors and monitor their response to treatment.

Peggy Means, executive vice president and chief operating officer, discussed faculty growth and finances. Over the next four years, the center hopes to expand the faculty with about 35 recruits among the four scientific divisions, six of whom will have their primary appointment at UW. Areas targeted for growth include solid-tumor research, genomics and biostatistics, and others.

Dr. Lee Hartwell, center president and director, summarized his impressions of the core grant site visit on June 18 and discussed key goals for the next few years.

In addition to recruiting and retaining faculty, other priorities include strategic and institutional planning, which is to be carried out by two new committees.

The first, the scientific steering committee, consists of program heads, associate program heads and individuals from clinical subspecialties and will evaluate and review the scientific programs.

The institutional planning committee consists of center senior leadership as well as representatives of UW and Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center. It will implement recommendations of the scientific steering committee.

Retreat organizers included Dr. Maxine Linial, Basic Sciences, Dr. Bruce Clurman, Clinical Research and Human Biology divisions, Dr. Stephanie Green, PHS, and Dr. Julie Overbaugh and Laima Abele-Magnan, Human Biology.

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