Ohio State's Comprehensive Cancer Center   

Ongoing Research Programs

• Cancer Control – Focuses on early detection, survivorship and behavioral strategies related to cancer prevention and control. Co-Leaders: Electra Paskett, PhD, MSPH, and Mary
  Ellen Wewers, PhD, MPH, RN
• Experimental Therapeutics – Evaluates novel therapeutics, imaging, cell therapeutics and drug targeting. Co-Leaders: Michael Grever, MD, and Samson Jacob, PhD
• Immunology – Focuses on cellular innate immunity, with applications in antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity. Leader: William Carson II , MD
• Molecular Biology and Cancer Genetics – Seeks to understand the control of gene expression as it relates to cell proliferation, DNA replication, differentiation, developmental
  regulation and the molecular basis of cancer. Co-Leaders: Albert de la Chapelle, MD, PhD, and Michael Ostrowski, PhD
• Molecular Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention – Investigates effects of genetic alterations induced by chemical toxins and infectious agents, identifies tumor-suppressor genes and studies other aspects of multistage carcinogenesis. Leader: Steven Clinton, MD, PhD
• Viral Oncogenesis – Seeks to discover which retroviruses contribute to human cancer and to develop and implement gene-delivery strategies using retroviral vectors.                    Co-Leaders: E. Antonio Chiocca, MD, PhD, and Patrick Green, PhD
  

Research Accomplishments of 2007

• The NCI awarded OSUCCC researchers $10 million over five years to study and manipulate the human body’s innate immunological ability to battle cancer. The money is a renewal of a $9.5 million program project grant the NCI awarded in 2002 to a team led by Michael Caligiuri, MD, director of the OSUCCC. The original grant involved four interactive
  projects separately led by Caligiuri, John Byrd, MD, William Carson II , MD, and Susheela Tridandapani, PhD.
• The NCI awarded a $7 million, five-year grant to help OSUCCC scientists and collaborators at other institutions discover natural anticancer compounds in plants from distant jungles. The NCI awarded the grant to principal investigator A. Douglas Kinghorn, PhD, the Jack L. Beal Professor and Chair in the College of Pharmacy and a researcher in Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center. Kinghorn says the goal is to discover chemicals in tropical rainforest plants, as well as in cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) and fungi, that can be developed as cancer chemotherapeutic agents, particularly for tumors that are currently incurable.
• The Wright Center of Innovation in Biomedical Imaging at OSUMC received a $1.5 million grant from the Foundation of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study and establish imaging biomarkers for predicting effective medical treatments. The award to Michael Knopp, MD, PhD, a professor of Radiology and member of Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, was announced by OSUCCC Director Michael Caligiuri, MD, during a “Discovery to Delivery” forum in the Biomedical Research Tower. The forum was attended by hundreds who listened to experts discuss the future of translational cancer research.
• The OSUCCC’s level of research funding from the NCI in 2007 was nearly $36.8 million, ranking 20th among all NCI-funded institutions for the year. Total external grant money for cancer research by OSUCCC scientists exceeds $110 million.
• In collaboration with multiple Ohio State University colleges and departments, the OSUCCC recruited 17 cancer researchers.
• Nine more members of the OSUCCC were elected as fellows in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest scientific organization, for their efforts in furthering science within their disciplines.
• U.S.News & World Report ranked Ohio State’s James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute 15th among America’s Best Hospitals and No. 1 in Ohio. It was the highest U.S. News ranking ever for The James, which is the patient-care component of the OSUCCC.
• Clara D. Bloomfield, MD, a Distinguished University Professor who also serves as cancer scholar and senior adviser to the OSUCCC-James, assumed the presidency of the International Association for Comparative Research on Leukemia and Related Diseases at its XXIII Symposium in Freiburg, Germany. She had been president-elect for the past two years. Bloomfield also received the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Statesman Award, a new honor for longtime ASCO members.
• Michael Caligiuri, MD, director of the OSUCCC, was elected to a two-year term as vice president and president-elect of the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI). He
  will serve a two-year term as president starting in October 2009. Caligiuri also was appointed to the NCI Board of Scientific Counselors for Clinical Sciences and Epidemiology, a 30-member team of experts that provides scientific advice and review of the progress of the intramural clinical and epidemiological research programs of the NCI Center for Cancer Research (CCR) and the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG).
• E. Antonio Chiocca, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery and co-leader of the OSUCCC’s Viral Oncogenesis Program, received the 2007 Grass Prize in Neurosurgery at the annual meeting of the Society of Neurological Surgeons in San Francisco. The award recognizes outstanding continuous commitment to research in
  the neurosciences.
• Chandan Sen, PhD, of the OSUCCC’s Molecular Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program, was named associate dean for Translational and Applied Research in Ohio State’s College of Medicine. He facilitates research collaborations between basic and clinical investigators while chairing the Technology and Commercialization Partnerships Council. He is also executive director of Ohio State’s Comprehensive
  Wound Center.

Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center
A458 Starling Loving Hall
320 W. 10th Avenue
Columbus, OH 43210
(614) 293-7517