News Archive

 

U.S.News and World Report Rankings

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Annual Survey

In the 2007 "Best Hospitals" issue (July 23, 2007, on newsstands July 16), the magazine ranked the University of Chicago Medical Center at 17th, tied with Cedars-Sinai of Los Angeles, out of America's 5,462 hospitals. Because the Medical Center scored highly in so many areas it is featured in the magazine's elite list of "Honor Roll" hospitals.

The Medical Center--the only Illinois hospital ever included in the honor roll--has appeared on this sought-after list 10 times since 1995.

bulletMore information about the survey

UCCRC Honors Tyler Jacks, PhD, with Shubitz Prize

Tyler Jacks, PhD, is this year’s Simon M. Shubitz Cancer Prize and Lectureship honoree. Dr. Jacks’ current research focuses on the use of gene targeting to create more powerful and accurate mouse models of human cancer and to explore the pathways regulated by cancer-associated genes. He has recently developed novel strategies for cell-specific activation of the K-ras, which have led to important new models of lung cancer.

In 1977, Dr. Shubitz created the Prize to honor internationally known scientists responsible for groundbreaking advances in cancer research.  A 1935 graduate of the University of Chicago - Rush Medical College, Dr. Shubitz valued the intellectual interaction between scientists, physicians and clinicians.  He funded this Prize and Lectureship to ensure the annual visit of an outstanding researcher to our campus. 

Dr. Jacks attended the University of California, San Francisco, where he earned his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry in 1988.   He joined the faculty at MIT’s Department of Biology and the Center for Cancer Research.  MIT soon appointed him Director for the Center for Cancer Research. As Director, he has pursued his long standing interest in the construction and characterization of mouse models of cancer.

Dr. Jacks and his team have produced mice with mutations in several tumor suppressor genes, oncogenes, and genes involved in cell cycle control and apoptosis.  Using both in vivo and cell-based methods, he has investigated the function of the Rb gene family, functional overlap within this family, and genetic interactions between the Rb and p53 pathways. In a series of experiments with particular relevance to the treatment human cancer, Dr. Jacks’ lab has discovered the requirement for p53 in DNA damage-induced apoptosis in thymocytes and tumor cells.  His groundbreaking work has expanded our knowledge of p53 function and regulation.

Dr. Jacks served as a member of the National Cancer Institute Board of Scientific Advisors and the Board of Directors of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). He was a long-term member of the Board of Scientific Advisors of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and was co-Chair of the steering committee of the NCI-sponsored Mouse Models of Human Cancer Consortium. Dr. Jacks was a Merck Fellow of the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation, a Markey and a Searle Scholar and is currently a Daniel K. Ludwig Scholar in Cancer Research. In recognition of his contributions to the study of cancer genetics, he received the AACR Cornelius P. Rhoads Memorial Award and the Amgen Award from the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; as well as the 2003 Chestnut Hill Award for Excellence in Medical Research and the 2005 Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research.


Sept. 20, 2005

Two University of Chicago professors receive MacArthur 'genius grants'

University of Chicago professors Olufunmilayo Falusi Olopade and Kevin Murphy have been named 2005 MacArthur fellows. They each will receive $500,000 in "no strings attached" support over the next five years under terms of the award from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Olopade, Professor in Medicine and Human Genetics, and Director of the Cancer Risk Clinic at the University Hospitals, was selected for "translating findings on the molecular genetics of breast cancer in African and African- American women into innovative clinical practices in the United States and abroad.

"In bridging continents with her innovative research and service models," the foundation said, "Olopade is increasing the probability of improved outcomes for millions of women of African heritage at risk for cancer."

Murphy, the George J. Stigler Professor in Economics and the Graduate School of Business, was selected for "revealing economic forces shaping vital social phenomena, such as wage inequality, unemployment, addiction, medical research and economic growth."

As a scientist, Olopade has a special interest in women of African ancestry, who are at higher risk for a more aggressive type of breast cancer and more likely to be diagnosed at a younger age. She recently found that breast cancers in African women often produce a pattern of gene expression that is significantly different from that seen in Caucasians.

As a clinician, her interests include finding and testing improved methods for prediction, prevention and early detection of cancer for moderate- and high-risk populations. In the Cancer Risk Clinic, which she started in 1992, Olopade coordinates preventive care and testing for healthy patients and their families who, because of genetics or family history, are at increased risk for cancer.

Olopade received her M.D. in 1980 from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and served as a medical officer at the Nigerian Navy Hospital in Lagos. In 1986, she completed an internship and residency at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago, and trained in hematology and oncology as a postdoctoral fellow at Chicago, where she has been a member of the faculty since 1991.

Murphy's work "challenges preconceived notions and attacks seemingly intractable economic questions, placing them on a sound empirical and theoretical footing," the foundation said.

Early in his career, Murphy identified how trends in wage inequality reflect underlying changes in demand for labor. Murphy also considered the phenomenon of addiction from an economic perspective. More recently, he has shown that, particularly for conditions such as heart disease and cancer, investment in basic health research and care results in orders of magnitude returns in economic value.

Murphy became a lecturer in the GSB in 1983 while he was a Ph.D. student in the University's Economics Department. He was appointed Assistant Professor when he received his Ph.D. in 1986, Associate Professor in 1988 and Professor in 1989. Murphy received his named chair appointment in 2002, and the distinction of Distinguished Service Professor in January 2005.

Murphy is the recipient of the 1997 John Bates Clark Medal, which is given every two years to the most outstanding American economist under the age of 40.

More than 60 of Murphy's research papers have been published in scholarly journals and he has written two books: Measuring the Gains from Medical Research: An Economic Approach (University Press, 2003), and Social Economics: Market Behavior in a Social Environment with Gary Becker, a professor of economics and Nobel Laureate, and Edward Snyder, Dean of the GSB and the George Pratt Shultz Professor of Economics in the GSB.

Olopade and Murphy join 23 other recipients of the award this year in fields as diverse as documentary filmmaking and neurobiology. Nineteen current or former faculty member at the University have been named MacArthur fellows.

The MacArthur Foundation's criteria for the awards, popularly known as "genius grants," include exceptional creativity and promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishment. The unusual level of independence afforded to the fellows underscores the spirit of freedom intrinsic to creative endeavors. Candidates are nominated, evaluated and selected through a rigorous and confidential process.

 

See Our Future Home

The University of Chicago Board of Trustees recently approved the design of the Center for Medical Discovery (CMD), which will have dedicated space for the University of Chicago Cancer Research Center.

This final approval means the University can proceed with land acquisition and construction. The building, to be located immediately west of the Biological Sciences Learning Center at Drexel and 57th Streets, is a manifestation of the University's strong commitment to interdisciplinary research, in general, and cancer research, in particular.

Please visit http://www.bsd.uchicago.edu/nrb.html for additional views of our future new home.

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Click here to make a donation to the U of C Cancer Research Foundation