New cancer ctr. names head

After a world-wide search, Craig Thompson, a practicing oncologist and immunologist, has been named the first scientific director of the Leonard and Madlyn Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute, which is part of the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center. The scientific director of the institute -- which will be housed in several different University buildings including the Biomedical Research Buildings -- will work with others at Penn to recruit scientists from around the world to conduct multidisciplinary cancer research, according to a Penn Health System spokesperson. Additionally, he is responsible for implementing the "scientific vision of the Abramson Institute and integrating its research programs into the ongoing research" at the Cancer Center. Thompson, who received his M.D. from the University, will begin his new position in the spring. His wife, Tullia Lindstend, will also be joining Penn in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Leonard Abramson was founder and former chairperson and chief executive officer of the Blue Bell, Pa.-based U.S. Healthcare, one of the country's largest managed-care companies. He sold the company in 1996 to Hartford, Conn., insurer Aetna Inc. At an informal press conference Friday at the Penn Tower Hotel, Madlyn Abramson, Medical School Dean William Kelley and Cancer Center Director John Glick announced Thompson's appointment. "We are incredibly honored and excited about this important day for the Abramson Institute," Abramson said. Kelley added that Thompson is "one of the world's leading scientists. He is the perfect person for this role." The institute was created last December, when the Abramsons pledged $100 million from the Abramson Family Foundation. It is dedicated to researching the causes of and actively seeking a cure for cancer, a disease which kills over 280,000 every year. "There are lots of great opportunities here at the University of Pennsylvania to build a real, new model, and to really impact cancer therapy and care," Thompson said. Thompson was eager to return to Penn because he would be "starting from a wonderful base" and would not have any "walls or boundaries [separating him] from the University [community.]" The main goal of the institute, Thompson explained, is to "continue basic research and take advantage of the patient situations available [at Penn.]" Thompson also plans to look into the "genetics of cancer, [and] the causation of cancer." All four people stressed that the institute would be concerned with "taking patient care to the next level? [and] treating patients as you would one of your family." Though Thompson does not have a doctorate, the selection board felt that he had significant research experience in the genetic and immune fields. Thompson is developing new "immune-based therapies" to treat cancer, which many oncologists view as the wave of the future. His lab research in Ann Arbor, Mich., focused on "two fairly broad areas: how the immune response system works? [and how] to isolate blood from people and try to study it in a test tube." The latter area also involves his cell-death theory -- which states that when cells are no longer necessary, they kill themselves. If this could be controlled, Thompson said, then one could manipulate cancer cells. The search for specialists is not over. The institute plans to bring in 20 to 25 "world-class scientists, to build up on the strength of Penn," according to Glick.