Community Briefs

Friday, January 15, 1999

Community Briefs

BRIEFS:

Physician wins award for cancer research

A physician at UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center has received the
first Franklin D. Murphy, M.D., Prize for achievements in prostate
cancer and leukemia research.

Dr. Charles Sawyers won the award for the breadth of his
research advances and innovative studies of new cancer treatments.
His research has resulted in the publication of more than 50
peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals.

Sawyers is director of the Prostate Cancer Program at UCLA’s
Jonsson Cancer Center, the Center’s associate chief for basic
research and an associate professor in the division of
hematology-oncology at the UCLA School of Medicine.

"In less than 10 years as a scientist at UCLA, Charles Sawyers
already has led many unique, exciting investigations in prostate
cancer and leukemia, and he continues to help pioneer promising new
ways to treat those types of cancer," said Dr. Leonard Rome, an
administrator for the Stein Oppenheimer Endowment, which sponsors
the Murphy Prize.

Using a first-of-its-kind laboratory model of prostate cancer he
invented in 1997 at UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center, Sawyers and his
colleagues are investigating how some prostate cancers build
resistance to traditional cancer treatments, working to identify
specific genes that promote prostate tumor development and
exploring new ways to treat prostate cancer.

Dr. Jonathan Simons, one of the nation’s leading prostate cancer
experts, lauded development of the model as "an essential event in
prostate cancer research." Simons is an associate professor of
oncology and urology at Johns Hopkins University School of
Medicine.

"The whole field of cancer research desperately needs models
with direct clinical relevance such as this model, which offers new
possibilities in molecular diagnosis and molecular understanding of
the lethal progression of prostate cancer, and offers new insights
into the development of new treatments for prostate cancer," Simons
said.

Village Theatre receives funds

Academy Award and Emmy Award-winning actress Claire Trevor Bren
will contribute $500,000 to complete a public/private renovation of
the Village Theatre at the School of the Arts at UC Irvine, it was
announced today.

The 30-year-old theater is the venue for more than 100 plays,
concerts and dance performances each year by the university’s
acclaimed drama, music and dance departments.

Thousands of actors, dancers and musicians have trained and
performed in the theater for the past three decades.

"The Village Theatre has played a central role in the
educational experiences of the many talented UCI students who have
gone on to successful and rewarding careers in the entertainment
world," UCI chancellor Ralph J. Cicerone said. "Mrs. Bren’s
generous gift will enable our students to hone their artistic
skills in a facility that is both beautiful and well-equipped."

The renovation, expected to begin in late summer or early fall
of 1999 and take 18 months to complete, will be part of a
transformation of the School of the Arts complex over six
years.

State budget sends

mixed message to UC

The Governor’s 1999-2000 state budget proposal received mixed
reaction at Thursday’s Regents meeting.

While the budget echoes the Governor’s plan to negotiate a
higher education "compact" – providing the UC and the CSU with
funding stability in exchange for accountability measures – it also
reduces the UC’s 1999-2000 request for permanent state support by
almost $50 million as well as discontinuing other funding needed
for core UC needs.

Compiled from Daily Bruin wire reports.

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