Faculty and Trainee Accomplishments

The Division of Hematology, Oncology and Transplantation celebrates the achievements of its faculty and trainees. 

Greg Vercellotti, M.D., F.A.C.P. has led a successful effort to renew our T32 Training Grant in Hematology. This training grant is a 5-year, $2.1 million award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The award, one of the longest running training grants funded by the NIH, will support the 36th through 40th consecutive years of funding for the Hematology Research Training Program (2012-2017). NIH funding for this training program was initiated and led for over 25 years by Harry Jacob, MD. Subsequently, Robert Hebbel, MD served as the Principal Investigator until Dr. Vercellotti took over leadership in 2008. The training program is based in the Division of Hematology, Oncology and Transplantation at the University of Minnesota and includes over 30 faculty mentors from multiple basic science and clinical departments on the Twin Cities campus. The overarching goal of the training program is to prepare physicians and scientists for careers in academic medicine and hematology-related research. "We achieve this goal by balancing the rigors of the trainee experience with the individual needs of trainees," said Dr. Vercellotti. "Another important goal is to bridge the gap between bench and bedside, and we do this by creating an interdisciplinary environment where each trainee works closely with faculty mentors from a wide range of medical and scientific disciplines." Well over 100 trainees have received training support from this program before going on to successful careers in a variety of academic disciplines in benign and malignant hematology. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Vercellotti on this successful effort!

Gautam Jha, M.B.B.S., M.S. received a Pre-K award from the University of Minnesota Clinical Translational Science Institute (CTSI) in February 2012. The award will provide Dr. Jha with two years of pilot funds to investigate whether the inhibition of regulatory T cells enhances the therapeutic efficacy of cetuximab in patients with head and neck cancer. The Pre-K award is designed to allow junior investigators, like Dr. Jha, to build successful research programs at the University of Minnesota, enabling them to submit competitive applications for K, R21, or R01 awards during their second year of support. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Jha for being a 2012 Pre-K awardee.

Veronika Bachanova, M.D. received a prestigious KL2 Career Development Award from the University of Minnesota Clinical Translational Science Institute (CTSI) in February 2012. The KL2 award will provide Dr. Bachanova with three years of clinical and translational research training and mentored support from Drs. Jeffrey Miller, Daniel Weisdorf, Linda Burns, Jamie Modiano and Chap Le. With the support of her KL2 mentors and research funds provided by the KL2 Award, Dr. Bachanova will develop a new immune-based therapy for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Her research project will seek to determine whether donor natural killer (NK) cells can be pre-selected for their ability to kill tumor cells and whether the potency of these NK cells can be enhanced by flagging tumor cells with a tumor-specific monoclonal antibody fused to interleukin-2, a cytokine that stimulates the proliferation and activation of NK cells. The goal of the KL2 award is to support junior investigators in their transition to independent research careers sustained by extramural funds. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Bachanova on being one of this year’s recipients of a prestigious KL2 award.
 

Julie Ostrander, PhD received a K to R Transition Grant from the University of Minnesota Clinical Translational Science Institute (CTSI) in February 2012. The award will provide Dr. Ostrander with two years of pilot funds to investigate whether cytoplasmic PELP1 expression is a potential biomarker for treatment response to tamoxifen in women with the early stages of breast cancer. Recipients of the K to R award must apply for a R01 or R01-equivalent award during their second year of support. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Ostrander for being a 2012 K to R Transition Grant awardee.
 

Carol Lange, Ph.D. received the 2012 Roy O. Greep Award Lecture from the Endocrine Society. This award is presented for outstanding contributions to research in endocrinology. Dr. Lange's laboratory investigates the molecular interactions between peptide growth factors and steroid hormone receptors in human breast cancer cells. Her work has advanced our understanding of the molecular mechanisms by which progesterone receptors influence breast tumorigenesis and breast cancer progression. The Roy O. Greep Award Lecture is one of only 11 Laureate Awards granted annually by the Endocrine Society. These awards are given to individuals who are transforming the field of endocrinology. As a recipient of a Laureate Award, Dr. Lange has been given the honor of presenting a plenary lecture at the upcoming Endocrine Society’s annual meeting. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Lange for being one of this year’s 11 recipients of a Laureate Award.

Linda Burns, M.D. was elected to a one-year term as Vice President of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), followed by successive one-year terms as President-Elect and President. ASH is the pre-eminent professional organization of hematologists with over 14,000 members world-wide. Dr. Burns will serve as a voting member of the Executive Committee from 2012-2014 and will be the second President of ASH from the University of Minnesota after Harry Jacob, M.D. (1999). Dr. Burns has served the Society as Treasurer; Chair of the Committee on Training Programs; Faculty and Co-Director of the Clinical Research Training Institute; Executive Editor of Hematology; and in many other capacities as well. “In her nearly 25 years of ASH membership, Dr. Burns has exhibited great leadership and dedication, particularly to our mission to provide vital mentorship to hematology trainees,” said ASH President J. Evan Sadler, M.D., Ph.D., of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “Her unique perspective and vast experience working with the next generation of hematologists will be a terrific asset to the Executive Committee.” Please join us in congratulating Dr. Burns on this extraordinary achievement. 

Daniel Weisdorf, MD was inducted into the prestigious Academy for Excellence in Health Research for his internationally recognized contributions to the field of blood and marrow transplantation. Dr. Weisdorf was presented with this honor, the highest recognition of achievement given by the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center, at a public induction ceremony on October 5, 2011, presided over by Aaron Friedman, MD, Vice President for Health Sciences and Dean of the Medical School of the University of Minnesota. In addition to lifetime membership in the Academy, an etched portrait of Dr. Weisdorf commemorates his outstanding record as a clinical investigator and is on display in the second floor corridor of the Malcolm Moos Health Science Tower. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Weisdorf!

More photos:  1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Arek Dudek, MD, PhD (left) and Jeff Miller, MD (right) were presented with the Champions of Care award by Fairview Foundation president Dick Howard on October 12, 2011. This honorary award is sponsored by the Fairview Grateful Patient Program, a program that allows patients at the University of Minnesota Medical Center (UMMC) to recognize their caregivers as superb clinicians by giving a gift in their name to the UMMC Greatest Needs Fund. Patients of both Drs. Dudek and Miller contributed to this fund in appreciation of the care they received.

Anne Blaes, Mark Reding, Doug Yee and Tufia Haddad were among those Twin Cities physicians named in Minnesota Monthly’s Best Doctors for Women 2011 poll. Physicians were selected by their peers for being "attuned to the specific needs of female patients.” For further information about the top doctors for women, please see the October issue of Minnesota Monthly.

Anne Blaes, MD has received a Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship Award from the Masonic Cancer Center. The project is titled Novel Biomarkers to Measure Cancer Treatment Induced Marrow Damage and Recovery. Dr. Blaes is a co-investigator along with the principal investigator Dr. Susanta Hui. (January 25, 2011)

Kalpna Gupta, PhD delivered the plenary lecture, titled “Opioid toxicity and local effects of anesthetics” at World Congress on Intravenous Anesthesia, Singapore, March 21-April 2, 2011.

Carol Lange, PhD received a 2011 Grant-in-Aid award from the Office of the Vice President for Research, University of Minnesota. The award supports research to develop new therapeutics that target progesterone-driven cellular senescence pathways in ovarian cancer. Senescent cancer cells are more sensitive to therapies that block signal transduction pathways important for cell survival. 

Dan Kaufman, MD, PhD has received a four-year RO1 award from the National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) through their "Tissue Engineering and Dental and Craniofacial Regenerative Medicine Research Program." The award will support studies designed to generate bone-forming osteogenic cells from human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells. These studies are expected to improve our understanding of the cellular and genetic mechanisms that mediate human bone development and accelerate efforts to develop the use of human pluripotent stem cells for the repair of non-healing bone injuries. Ross Kopher, PhD, a Research Associate in the lab of Dr. Kaufman, will lead the project entitled "Osteogenic Repair from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells" in collaboration with Joan Bechtold, PhD, Director, Orthopaedic Biomechanics Lab, Excelen Center for Bone and Joint Research and Professor, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering.