Division Notes

Thursday, May 2, 2002

Vol 8, Issue 9

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Day part of group that seeks boost in education on cancer prevention

Dr. Robert Day, center president and director from 1981 through 1997, is part of a consortium of oncologists, researchers and patient advocates calling for development of a national program in cancer-prevention education.

The goal of such a program would be to boost professional and public education on the need for screening and risk assessment and to communicate cancer-prevention models that incorporate chemopreventive agents.

The consortium, called the Cancer Prevention Working Group, met last November in Washington D.C.

Participants said the need for education stems from the prevalence of conflicting messages about cancer prevention that confuse the public and physicians alike.

The group also addressed reimbursement barriers to cancer prevention. While many managed health plans are ready to adopt chemoprevention strategies that promote wellness, not enough evidence of their effectiveness has been presented to influence the standards for reimbursement, the group said.

The group was established in 1999 with sponsorship from Pharmacia/Pfizer. For more information, call Cindy Russo at 908-901-8581.

Evolutionary geneticist Peichel to join Human Biology Division

An investigator with interests in evolutionary biology will join the Human Biology Division in January 2004.

Dr. Katie Peichel, postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, studies a fish called the threespine stickleback as a model to define the genetic changes that define a species. After she finishes her research at Stanford, Peichel plans to spend five months in Nepal teaching genetics to medical students.

"Katie single-handedly developed genomics resources to enable her to make rapid progress, mapping complex behavioral and morphological traits in natural populations of sticklebacks," said Dr. Barbara Trask, Human Biology Division director.

"Like humans, these populations are outbred and genetically varied. Therefore, what Katie learns from sticklebacks will have significant impact on the design of studies aiming to map complex traits in humans."

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