Tulane Cancer Center Members: S
Faculty Membership Application and Membership Definitions
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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Sabbioni, Safah, Sanford, Sartor, Scandurro, Scher, Shan, Shuh, Sikka, Srivastav, D. Sullivan, K. Sullivan, Sun

Gabriele Sabbioni, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences
sabbioni@tulane.edu
(504) 988-2771, (504) 988-1726 fax
1440 Canal St., Ste. 2100, New Orleans, LA 70112-2699

 

Biographical information:
After studying chemistry (Master's, PhD) in Berne, Switzerland, Professor Sabbioni performed his first postdoctoral work in the field of bioorganic chemistry at the University of Toronto (1982). He worked in toxicology at the Division of Toxicology of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1984. In 1986, he had the opportunity to teach as a visiting assistant professor at the Department of Chemistry of the Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. One year later, he started work as an independent researcher at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology of the University of Wurzburg (Germany). At the end of 1992, he obtained his postdoctoral lecturing qualification (Habilitation) from the University of Wurzburg. The title of his postdoctoral thesis (Habilitationsschrift) was "Biomonitoring of aromatic amines and aflatoxins." In 1996, he obtained a position as a non-tenure-track associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Munich. During the last 22 years, his research has focused on the development of methods (protein and DNA adducts) for biomonitoring of people exposed to carcinogens. He has also been teaching courses in toxicology and pharmacology and supervising undergraduate and PhD students and postdoctoral fellows.

Recent Publications:

Hana Safah, M.D.
Associate Professor of Medicine
Director, Hematology / Medical Oncology Fellowship Program
Medical Director, Bone Marrow Transplant Program
Medical Director, Institutional Review Board
TCC Associate Member
hsafah@tulane.edu
(504) 599-6565, (504) 988-6077 fax
1430 Tulane Ave., Box SL-68, New Orleans, LA 70112-2699

Specialties, publications, and research:

Robert Sanford, Ph.D.
Radiation Oncologist
Assistant Professor of Radiology
TCC Associate Member
rsanford@tulane.edu
(504) 988-6314, (504) 988-6362 fax
1415 Tulane Ave., Box HC-62, New Orleans, LA 70112

Biographical information:
Dr. Sanford received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 1984 from Tulane University with one year of study at the University of Sheffield, England. He received his Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Particle Physics in 1999 from Louisiana State University. Dr. Sanford began a medical physics residency in 1999 under Dr. M.S. Al-Ghazi at the University of California, Irvine and was bestowed a Young Physicist Award by the American College of Medical Physics in 2000. Dr. Sanford continued at UCI as a clinical instructor and joined the Tulane faculty in February 2002. Dr. Sanford's primary clinical duties include the calibration, quality assurance, acceptance testing, and commissioning of all radiation therapy equipment, radioactive treatment sources, computerized treatment planning systems, and radiation measuring devices housed in the Department of Radiation Oncology. Clinical responsibilities also include overseeing the determination of radiation dose distributions in patients undergoing treatment and tracking doses delivered to patients. Research interests include intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and Monte Carlo treatment planning.

Recent Publications:

Oliver Sartor, M.D.
The Gerald & Flora Jo Mansfield Piltz Endowed Professor in Cancer Research
Professor, Department of Medicine: Section of Hematology & Medical Oncology and Department of Urology
TCC Program Member
osartor@tulane.edu
(504) 988-5059 fax
1430 Tulane Ave., SL-42, New Orleans, LA 70112


Biographical information:
Dr. Oliver Sartor is the Piltz Professor of Cancer Research in the Departments of Medicine and Urology at Tulane University School of Medicine. He is a medical oncologist with an interest in prostate cancer from both a basic and clinical perspective. He is on the Department of Defense Integration Panel for prostate cancer research and is the chairman-elect of the organization as well as co-editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal Clinical Genitourinary Cancer. He is also the current medical oncology chair of the Radiation Oncology Treatment Group Genitourinary Cancer Committee. In addition, Dr. Sartor is a SPORE project co-PI at Dana-Farber Cancer Center on a translational project involving the clinical outcomes and consequences of the 8q24 risk alleles. Dr. Sartor's current research interests include clinical trials in advanced prostate cancer with novel agents and novel combinations of agents. His collaborative projects include novel concepts in prostate stem cells and germ line assessment of prostate cancer risk.

Recent Publications:

Aline B. Scandurro, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor of Microbiology
TCC Program Member
alibscan@tulane.edu
(504) 988-1934, (504) 988-5144 fax
1601 Perdido Street, New Orleans, LA 70112
Homepage on the Microbiology website:
http://www.som.tulane.edu/departments/microbiology/scandurro.htm

Biographical information:
Dr. Scandurro received her B.S. in Biochemistry from Tulane University in 1985. She received her Ph.D. in 1992 in Microbiology from Georgetown University Medical Center and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in 1993 at the National Institutes of Health, Laboratory of Cellular Carcinogenesis and Tumor Promotion, National Cancer Institute. She completed a second fellowship in 1997 at the Tulane Cancer Center, Department of Pharmacology, Tulane University Medical Center, She joined the Tulane faculty in 1997 as a Research Instructor and became a Research Assistant Professor in 1999.

Dr. Scandurro's research focuses on oxygen-sensing genetic mechanisms, post-transcriptional control of oxygen-regulated genes, RNA binding proteins, angiogenesis and cancer research. Tumors require the formation of new blood vessels, angiogenesis, to grow. Targeting angiogenesis provides a novel approach for cancer therapy that rivals conventional therapy since drug resistance and tissue toxicity issues are avoided. Tumor angiogenesis depends on a balance between tumor-dependent angiogenic factors like VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) and host anti-angiogenic peptides like endostatin and angiostatin. The ability to alter this balance by favoring the anti-angiogenic effect by treatment with exogenous endostatin and angiostatin has been demonstrated. However, a major difficulty in translating these strategies to the clinic is the lack of large quantities of these peptides for long-term treatment. An alternative strategy to disturb this balance is to disrupt VEGF or other angiogenic factor production. EGF, like the hematopoietic growth factor erythropoietin (Epo), is usually synthesized following low oxygen or hypoxic stress. Since VEGF is a potent mitogen for vascular endothelial cells this response represents a means to quickly develop new blood vessels to bring oxygenated red blood cells and rescue the stressed tissue. Growing tumor cells become hypoxic and trigger or exploit this normal physiologic process. VEGF and Epo induction by hypoxia is largely controlled at the level of message stability. Post-transcriptional mechanisms have been implicated for VEGF and Epo since a physiologic drop in oxygen tension leads to induction of gene expression. However, increases in mRNA transcription does not exactly parallel the observed increased level of expression; thus it has been postulated that post-transcriptional stabilization of the normally labile VEGF and Epo mRNAs may account for the observed increased VEGF and Epo levels. Investigations in this laboratory have identified a complex of proteins, erythropoietin mRNA binding protein complex (ERBP30 and 70), in cytoplasmic lysates of human hepatocellular carcinoma (Hep3B) cells which specifically bind to a 120 nucleotide (nt) region in the 3' untranslated region (UTR) of Epo mRNA, VEGF mRNA as well as tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) mRNA. Additionally, a stabilizing role has been suggested for this region from studies in which deletion of this 120 nt region lead to an unchanged mRNA half-life in response to hypoxia (6 hrs) as compared to a forty percent increase in half-life observed for the wild-type mRNA. Production of VEGF and Epo is likely to be controlled post-transcriptionally by specific binding of the ERBP30 and ERBP70 complex to the 3' UTR of the VEGF and Epo mRNA. Current efforts are centered on understanding oxygen-sensing at the post-transcriptional level with the hypothesis that ERBP30 and ERBP70 are common post-transcriptional factors involved in oxygen-sensing.

Recent Publications:

Charles D. Scher, M.D.
Marcelle Shaeffer Vergara Chair Professor of Pediatrics
Chief of the Section of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology
TCC Associate Member
cscher@tulane.edu
(504) 988-5412, (504) 988-2557 fax
1430 Tulane Ave., Box SL-37, New Orleans, LA 70112-2699

Biographical information:
Dr. Scher received his B.A. in 1961 from Brandeis University and earned his medical degree in 1965 from the University of Pennsylvania. He served an internship and residency at Bronx Municipal Hospital/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and a residency in pediatrics fellowship in pediatric hematology at Children's Hospital Medical Center, Harvard Medical School. He also served as a lieutenant commander from 1967-1971 in the United States Public Health Service at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. After teaching and research fellowships in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Scher joined the Harvard faculty where he rose to the rank of associate professor of pediatrics. While at Harvard he was a visiting scientist in the Department of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Scher joined the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in 1982 as professor of pediatrics and human genetics. He joined the Tulane faculty in 1994. Dr. Scher specializes in pediatric hematology and oncology. He has served as bench researcher, mentor, and reviewer in investigations in acute lymphoblastic leukemia and the molecular biology of cancer. Dr. Scher is an accomplished basic scientist in the fields of the cellular and molecular biology of cancer, especially in the definition of the viruses causing leukemia, and the study of platelet derived growth factor, which has been implicated in the replication of normal connective tissue cells as in process of wound healing. He has served as principal investigator on six NIH-funded projects and one privately funded grant project, and has been responsible for extramural funding for numerous graduate students and junior faculty working in his laboratories. He is author of over 90 original publications and abstracts in his field.

Recent Publications:

bshanBin Shan, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Section of Pulmonary Medicine
TCC Program Member
bshan@tulane.edu
(504) 988-2343, (504) 988-2144 fax
1430 Tulane Ave., SL-9, New Orleans, LA 70112

Biographical information:
Dr. Shan received his M.D. at Hunan Medical University, P.R. China in 1994. He completed his Ph.D. training with Dr. Gilbert F. Morris in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Department at Tulane University in 2003. Dr. Shan carried out his postdoctoral research with Dr. Joseph A. Lasky in the Department of Medicine, Pulmonary Section at Tulane Medical School from 2003 - 2006. During his postdoctoral training, he made major contributions to the awards of two NIH RO1 grants to Dr. Lasky. He then joined the Pulmonary Section as an assistant professor in 2006. Dr. Shan's ongoing research focuses on lung tumorigenesis and viral mediators in lung diseases.

Recent Publications:

Maureen Shuh, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences
TCC Associate Member
mshuh@loyno.edu
(504) 865-3285, (504) 865-2920 fax
Loyola University New Orleans, 6363 St. Charles Ave., Box 25, 312 Monroe Hall, New Orleans, LA 70118

 

Biographical information:
Dr. Shuh obtained her B.A. in microbiology and immunology at the University of California at Berkeley. While at Berkeley, she worked in the laboratory with Dr. Hitoshi Sakano's graduate student Thomas Hope (now at Northwestern University). After graduation, Dr. Shuh worked for Dr. Kathelyn Steimer at Chiron Corporation on an HIV vaccine project. Working with Hope and Steimer led her to pursue a Ph.D., which she completed at Brown University in 1996 under the direction of Dr. Douglas Hixson, who is the director of the COBRE Center for Cancer Research Development at Rhode Island Hospital. After obtaining her Ph.D., she pursued a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. David Derse at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). She continues her close collaboration with Derse on SRF-TAX.

Recent Publications:

Suresh C. Sikka, Ph.D., HCLD
Associate Professor of Urology
Adjunct Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Biochemistry
Director of Andrology Clinic and Research Laboratories
TCC Associate Member
ssikka@tulane.edu
(504) 988-5179, (504) 988-5059 fax
1430 Tulane Ave., Box SL-42, New Orleans, LA 70112-2699
Homepage on the Urology website:
http://www.som.tulane.edu/departments/urology/faculty/sikka.html

Biographical information:
Dr. Sikka received his Ph.D. from the Department of Pharmacology, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, India, in 1978. He did his post-doctoral fellowship from 1979-1982 in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles where he obtained training in the field of protein-lipid interactions in cell membranes, protein purification, and functional incorporation into liposomes. In 1982 Dr. Sikka moved to the Urology section of the Department of Surgery at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), as Urology Laboratory Research Director. Dr. Sikka joined the Tulane faculty in 1989 as Assistant Professor of Urology and Andrology Laboratory Director. He was responsible for setting up a CLIA-approved Andrology Clinical and Research Laboratory at Tulane Medical Center, catering to the needs of many infertility and sexual dysfunction patients. Dr. Sikka's current research focus is oxidative stress-related signal transduction pathways and gene expression involved in prostate tumorigenesis (BPH and cancer) and drug targeting. The Urology department has recently procured a Laser Capture Microscope (LCM) to microdissect specific and selective biological cells from various clinical samples. LEQSF has also recently funded the Department to acquire the latest DNA - microarray system for expression of specific genes (genomics), and their translational products (proteonomics). The lab routinely employs molecular biology, differential gene expression, suppressive subtractive hybridization, other cell biology, biochemical, and chemiluminescence techniques as well as xenograft and transgenic models of disease and in situ studies on human tissues approaches to address many questions as they relate to prostate tumorigenesis. Using a super-repressor I kappa B adenoviral delivery approach, the lab plans to evaluate the role of inhibiting the activation of the nuclear factor NF-kappa B in enhancing radio/chemosensitization and apoptosis of prostate tumor cells. Analysis of the expression and function of these genes should allow for a more in depth understanding of the processes controlling prostate tumor growth, invasion and metastasis. The ultimate aim is on developing new diagnostic tools and potential therapeutic applications using a gene therapy approach (pharmacogenomics).

Recent Publications:
Sudesh K. Srivastav, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biostatistics, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine
TCC Contributing Member
ssrivas@tulane.edu
(504) 988-2472, (504) 988-1706 fax
1430 Tulane Ave., Box SL-16, New Orleans, LA 70112-2699
Homepage on the Biostatistics website:
http://www.biostatistics.tulane.edu/bio_pages/faculty_bio/srivatav.html

Biographical information:
Dr. Srivastav received his masters degree in Statistics from Indian Statistical Institute in 1988 and another masters degree in Applied Mathematics from New Jersey Institute of Technology, New Jersey in 1990. He received his Ph.D. in Design of Experiments from Old Dominion University, Virginia in 1996 and in the same year he took a faculty position at University of California at San Francisco as Assistant Adjunct Professor in Biostatistics. In 1999 he joined the Department of Biostatistics at Tulane's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. He became an honorary fellow at the Center of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in summer 2000. Dr. Srivastav will be a research fellow at the Department of Statistics at Stanford University during summer 2001. Dr. Srivastav has published numerous papers in both theoretical and applied statistical and medical journals. His research is focussed on methodology that is devoted toward establishing the optimality and construction of block designs under a different set of parameters (number of treatments, number of blocks and block size, etc). This research will provide a simple classification scheme of study designs that can be useful in the field of health science, agricultural science and industrial engineering.

Recent Publications:

Deborah E. Sullivan, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor of Microbiology & Immunology
TCC Program Member
dsulliva@tulane.edu
1430 Tulane Ave., Box SL-38, New Orleans, LA 70112-2699


 

Biographical information:
Dr. Sullivan received her B.S. (1984) and M.S. (1988) degrees in biology/microbiology from Southeastern Louisiana University. She earned her Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology from Tulane University Health Sciences Center in 1999 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, studying the role of HIV Tat-induced angiogenesis in the development of Kaposi's sarcoma in 2001. Dr. Sullivan joined the faculty of Tulane University Health Sciences Center as a research assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in 2001. Her research is focused on the molecular mechanisms involved in the development of pulmonary fibrosis and lung cancer in response to inhaled environmental agents. She is also interested in the use of stem cells as cell therapy to aid in the repair of injured lung and as vehicles to deliver therapeutic genes for the treatment of lung cancer.


Recent Publications:

Karen A. Sullivan, Ph.D.
Research Professor of Medicine
Director of Histocompatability and Immunogenetics
TCC Associate Member
karens@tulane.edu
(504) 988-5259, (504) 988-3636 fax
1430 Tulane Ave., Box SL-75, New Orleans, LA 70112-2699

Biographical information:
Dr. Sullivan received her B.S. in 1966 from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and her Ph.D. in 1973 from Duke University. She completed her postdoctoral research from 1973-1975 at the McIndoe Memorial Research Unit, Blond Laboratories, Queen Victoria Hospital, Sussex, England and was a postdoctoral fellow from 1975-1978 in the Division of Laboratories and Research, New York State Department of Health. Dr. Sullivan's Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics Laboratory provides histocompatibility testing support for the Tulane Multi-Organ Transplant programs which include kidney, liver, heart and pancreas. The laboratory also provides allogenic and autologous bone marrow transplantation. This support includes typing for the genes and antigens of the Major Histocompatability Complex (HLA) in order to determine the level of phenotypic and/or genetic HLA identity between individuals. It also includes crossmatching between recipient sera and donor lymphocytes; antibody screening of patient sera to determine the level of sensitization and specificity of antibodies to HLA antigens in the general population. The Histocompatability and Immunogenetics Laboratory also performs immunophenotyping of lymphocyte subsets. The laboratory also provides HLA typing for disease association and other non-transplant relateed reasons, including research. The laboratory has extensive expertise in HLA typing for Class I and Class II antigens by serological and molecular methodology, two- and three-color flow cytometry for immunophenotyping, antibody screening and crossmatching, enzyme-linked immunosobant assays for the detection and identification of antibodies specific for HLA antigens, isolation and viable freezing of PBMC and in vitro tissue culture, lymphoproliferative assays to mitogens and recall antigens, mixed lymphocyte culture assays and cell-mediate cytotoxic assyas for CTL and NK cell activity.

Recent Publications:

lcsunLi-Chun Sun , Ph.D.
Research Associate Professor of Medicine, Peptide Research
TCC Associate Member
lsun@tulane.edu
(504) 988-1179, (504) 988-3586 fax
1430 Tulane Ave., Box SL-12, New Orleans, LA 70112-2699

Biographical information:
Dr. Sun received his B.S. (1987) and M.S. (1990) from Xiamen University and earned his Ph.D. (1999) from Fudan University, P.R. China. In the same year, he joined the faculty of Tulane University Health Sciences Center as a research instructor in the Department of Medicine, Peptide Research Section, chaired by Dr. David H. Coy. Dr. Sun was promoted to research assistant professor in 2003 and research associate professor in 2007. In Dr. Coy's peptide research group, Dr. Sun established and is in charge of the biological branch of the laboratories. Dr. Sun's current research focuses on the development of peptide-based drugs and drug delivery systems in cancer therapeutics and their relevant mechanisms.

Recent Publications:


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