Dateline DFCI
Awards and honors bestowed on Dana-Farber and its staff
Dedication and initiative by staff were rewarded in recent months with various accolades, both within and outside the Institute. Among them:
U.S. News & World Report once again rated DFCI the top cancer hospital in New England and the fourth-best in the nation. Dana-Farber has been ranked among the top five each year it has been included in the magazine's annual hospital guide.
Twenty-five years after joining the staff, James Griffin, MD, was promoted this summer to lead the Institute's largest department, Medical Oncology (formerly Adult Oncology). Griffin was chosen for his vision, commitment, compassion, and organizational skills. The department's clinics account for 100,000-plus patient visits a year, and its laboratories occupy 75,000 square feet of space. It recently organized into six divisions covering Hematologic Malignancies, Hematologic Neoplasia, Molecular and Cellular Oncology, Population Sciences, Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care, and Solid Tumor Oncology.
Todd Golub, MD, whose work is leading to new precision in cancer diagnosis and treatment, was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, one of the most prestigious honors in medical science. A member of the Pediatric Oncology Department, Golub has helped pioneer the field of gene 'microarrays," which scan the activity of thousands of genes at the same time. He is one of three current Howard Hughes investigators at DFCI.
Ten up-and-coming researchers make up this year's class of "Dunkin' Donuts Rising Stars." The group — which includes Ted Alyea, MD; Lynda Chin, MD; David Frank, MD, PhD; Jonathan Friedberg, MD; William Hahn, MD, PhD; Stephanie Lee, MD, MPH; Matthew Meyerson, MD, PhD; Kornelia Polyak, MD, PhD; Geoffrey Shapiro, MD, PhD; and Ramesh Shivdasani, MD, PhD — is studying topics ranging from the treatment of gastrointestinal malignancies to molecular differences between normal and cancerous cells. The five-year, $2.5 million program supports research projects at their earliest stages, thanks to the generosity of Dunkin' Donuts franchise owners throughout the Northeast.
The prestigious National Academy of Sciences (NAS) welcomed two more Dana-Farber investigators to its ranks this past spring with the election of Harvey Cantor,MD, of Cancer Immunology and AIDS and Bruce Spiegelman, PhD, of Cancer Biology. Joining the academy is considered one of the highest honors accorded a U.S. scientist or engineer. The Institute now counts 10 NAS members on its staff, chosen for their "distinguished and continuing achievements in original research."
