The UCSD Cancer Center has chosen Carol E. Salem, M.D., a specialist in urologic oncology and urinary reconstruction, to head the school’s new Urologic Cancers Unit, where she will help treat bladder, prostrate, testicular, renal, urethral and penile cancers.
Salem graduated from UCSD with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and earned her medical degree from USC. Salem now comes to the UCSD School of Medicine as an assistant professor of surgery in the urology division.
Salem has spent many years studying the effect of DNA methylation as a possible sign of bladder cancer and was honored by the American Foundation for Urologic Diseases in 1997.
Kidney cancer treatment being tested at UCSD
An experimental stem cell transport drug used to treat kidney cancer is currently being evaluated at the UCSD Blood and Marrow Transport Program.
Kidney cancer is known to be resistant against conventional treatments, but the stem cell being used has proven promising in a recent study conducted by the National Institutes of Health.
This particular treatment, which is called the nonmyeloablative allogenic peripheral-blood stem-cell transport, is open to patients in the trial who have a sibling who can donate stem cells for the experiment. Patients receive minimal chemotherapy before the stem-cell transplant. For more information about the study, call the UCSD Blood and Marrow Transplant program at (858) 657-6840.
Off-Campus Housing office moves to new location
As of Dec. 11, the Off-Campus Housing office has moved from Student Center B to its new location in Student Center A, Suite 200-202 in the Eucalyptus Lounge. The Eucalyptus Lounge is located on the second floor above the Bike Shop.
The Off-Campus Housing office will continue to offer commuter advising, services and housing referrals as well as directory and rental listings for all students, staff and faculty. The office can be reached at (858) 534-3670.
UCSD’s Mark Shuckit honored for exemplary research
Mark A. Shuckit, a UCSD professor of psychiatry and director of the Alcohol Research Center at the Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center, was awarded a lifetime Achievement Award at this winter’s annual U.S. Psychiatric Congress meeting.
John Schwartz, editor in chief of the Psychiatric Times, presented Shuckit with his award. Schwartz cited Shuckit’s research on the role of genetics in alcoholism.
Shuckit has done extensive work concerning alcoholism and genetics including a study that found a relationship between the effects of alcohol on a young person and its manifestation later in life.
Shuckit authored the textbook “”Drug and Alcohol: A Clinical Guide to Diagnosis and Treatment,”” which is now in its fifth edition.
UC natural reserve system receives packard grant
The University of California has received a Packard Grant of $263,600 to develop a program for long-term research in an effort to save California’s endangered coastal-oak system.
Over 3 million acres of the system have been sacrificed to residential and agricultural development.
The Packard Grant will fund a nine-month planning period by UC environmental field scientists from UC campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz.
The researchers will also develop partnerships with other organizations to analyze possible methods for restoring the ecosystem at risk.
The funding for the Packard Grant comes from the Packard Foundation’s Conserving California Landscapes Initiative.
