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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Safah, Sanford, Santos, Scandurro, Schally, Scher, Schorin, Sikka, Srivastav, Steinmann, Stolier, Sullivan
Hana Safah, M.D.
Director of Bone Marrow Transplant
Associate Professor of Medicine
Section of Hematology and Medical Oncology
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:
Edgardo S. Santos, M.D.
Assistant Medical Director, Office of Clinical Research
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Section of Hematology and Medical Oncology
TCC Contributing Member
esantos1@tulane.edu
(504) 988-6352, (504) 988-5483 fax
1430 Tulane Ave., Box SL-78, New Orleans, LA 70112-2699

Biographical information:
Dr. Santos received his medical degree in 1994 at the University of Panama School of Medicine, Panama. He completed his internship years at Complejo Hospitalario Metropolitano "Dr. Anulfo Arias Madrid", Panama (1994-1995) and Hospital Regional de Santiago, Veraguas (1995-1996). He was ranked first for the Internal Medicine residency program at Complejo Hospitalario Metropolitano (1997). Dr. Santos continued and finished his training in Internal Medicine at Jackson Memorial Hospital, University of Miami, Florida (1998-2001). During his fellowship (2001-2004), Dr. Santos participated actively in the development of several clinical and translational research projects at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, Miami, Florida. His major interest has been the development of Phase I and Phase II clinical trials for hematologic malignancies such as multiple myeloma and lymphoma. Dr. Santos has also been involved in several clinical projects focusing on lung cancer. He joined the Tulane University faculty as Assistant Professor of Medicine, in the section of Hematology and Medical Oncology (2004). He also serves as Physician Staff at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, New Orleans. He has the responsibility to supervise the Hematology-Oncology outpatient facility, the Chemotherapy Unit, and the in-patient service. In addition to his patient care activities at the V.A. Hospital and at Tulane Cancer Center, Dr. Santos is involved with the training of medical students, residents, and fellows. He is an active member of sereval medical societies such as the American Society of Hematology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Association for Cancer Research, the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine.  Dr. Santos was recipient of the "Spirit Award" from the American Cancer Society in the summer of 2005 and was named assistant medical director of Tulane Cancer Center's Office of Clinical Research in August 2005. 

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:
Andrew V. Schally, Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine
Experimental Medicine, Veterans Administration Hospital
TCC Program Member
(504) 589-5230, (504) 566-1625 fax
1601 Perdido Street, New Orleans, LA 70112

Biographical information:
Dr. Schally's research career began in December 1949 at the National Institute for Medical Research (Mill Hill), London, England, where he was trained in peptide chemistry. Between 1952 and 1957 he studied biochemistry and Endocrinology at McGill University, Montreal, Canada and worked in the Endocrine unit at Allan Memorial Institute for Psychiatry. In 1957, Dr. Schally moved to Baylor University in Houston, Texas to work on corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF). In 1962 he joined the Veterans Administration Hospital and the Department of Medicine at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans. Dr. Schally outstanding research accomplishments were recognized in 1977 when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work on the isolation, identification, synthesis and clinical application of hypothalamic hormones. Currently Dr. Schally is studying the development of new cancer therapies based on antitumor peptides. The long-term objective of this research is the development of new hormonal methods for treatment of various neoplasms, which may be dependent on or sensitive to hormones and growth factors. The specific aims are to evaluate antitumor activity of some peptide analogs of hypothalmic hormones, especially antagonists of leutinizing hormone releasing hormone (LH-RH), antagonists of growth hormone releasing hormone (GH-RH), antagonists of bombesin/gastrin releasing peptide (GRP), cytotoxic analogs of LH-RH, somatostatin and bombesin, and to elucidate the mechanism of action of these analogs. This includes evaluation of changes in the expression of growth factors and their membrane receptors by measurements of mRNA levels in tumors. The inhibitory effects of analogs are studied in various animal tumor models, especially in nude mice bearing transplanted human cancers. The antitumor action of analogs is due to various effects on hormones, growth factors, or their receptors. The overall program provides new information on the application of peptide analogs for treatment of neoplasms for which present therapy is inadequate, such as relapsed androgen-independent prostate cancer, advanced pancreatic cancer, locally-advanced and metastatic gastric cancer, disseminated colon cancer, malignant brain tumora, lung cancer (SCLC and non-SCLC), renal cancer and tumors of bone and cartilage.

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:
Marshall A. Schorin, M.D.
Professor of Pediatrics
Section of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology
Principle Investigator at Tulane for COG studies
TCC Program Member
mschori@tulane.edu
(504) 988-5412, (504) 988-2557 fax
1430 Tulane Ave., Box SL-37, New Orleans, LA 70112-2699

Biographical information:
Dr. Schorin graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. After serving at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and at Harvard Medical School, he joined the faculty of the Tulane University School of Medicine in 1983. Dr. Schorin is engaged in developing and administering chemotherapy protocols, particularly including clinical research in the management of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia, in affiliation with the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts. He is also involved in similar research and treatment of childhood cancer through membership in the Children's Oncology Group (COG). He is the Principal Investigator at the Tulane site of the COG and a member of the steering committee of the Transfusion Medicine/Hemostasis Ntework established by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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 Associate 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:
William C. Steinmann, M.D.
Professor of Medicine
Section of Internal Medicine
TCC Associate Member
wsteinm@tmpop.som.tulane.edu
(504) 988-7518, (504) 988-2860 fax
1430 Tulane Ave., Box SL-18, New Orleans, LA 70112-2699
Specialties, publications, and research: Screening and treatment of tumors
Alan Stolier, M.D.
Professor of Surgery
TCC Associate Member
astolier@tulane.edu
(504) 988-3311, (504) 988-6114 fax
1430 Tulane Ave., Box SL-22, New Orleans, LA 70112-2699

Biographical information:
Alan Stolier, M.D., is currently Professor of Surgery at Tulane University School of Medicine. Following his surgical internship at the University of Virginia Hospital he completed his general surgical training at Louisiana State University. He then completed fellowships in surgical oncology at both the M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute in Houston, Texas, and at the Hammersmith Hospital in London, England. Beginning in 1993, he limited his practice to breast surgery and at that time became the first medical director of the Breast Cencer at Memorial Hospital in New Orleans as well as the Lieselotte Tansey Breast Center at the Ochsner Clinic Foundation. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the Society of Surgical Oncology. He is a member of the American Society of Breast Disease, American Society of Clinical Oncology, and Past President of the James D. Rives Surgical Society. His most recent publications and interests have centered on hereditary breast cancer and accelerated partial breast irradiation.

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:

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