Justin M. Balko, PhD, PharmD, has been named a member of the 2016 Class of Pink Tie Guys by the Greater Nashville Affiliate of Susan G. Komen, a nonprofit organization dedicated to breast cancer research and patient support. Dr. Balko is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine and Leader of Molecular Oncology in the Center for Cancer-Targeted Therapeutics at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.

Russel Kaufman, MD, has been appointed Chief Medical Officer of Kentmere Healthcare Consulting Corporation. He was previously Chief Medical Consultant at Kenmore. He is also Executive-in-Residence at Pappas-Capital.

David Khayat, MD, PhD, FASCO, has been retained by Spotlight Innovation Inc. as the Principal Investigator for a European phase I dose-escalation safety study, Crotoxin in Patients with Advanced Cancer using an Intravenous Route of Administration. The clinical study will be conducted at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris.

Nebu V. Koshy, MBBS, FACP, has been named Director of Hematologic Malignancies and Stem Cell Transplantation Program at LSU Health- Shreveport’s Feist-Weiller Cancer Center. A graduate of the medicine residency program and the hematology/ oncology fellowship program at LSU Health Shreveport, Dr. Koshy returned as a faculty member after completing a year of specialized training in bone marrow transplantation at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York.

Varian Medical Systems has appointed Patrick Kupelian, MD, as Vice President of Clinical Affairs in the company’s Oncology Systems business.

Steven K. Libutti, MD, FACS, is the principal investigator for a Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Institutional Research Training Grant (T32) awarded to the Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care and the Albert Einstein Cancer Center. The grant provides $1.18 million in funding over 5 years to equip future surgeon-scientists with the basic research background and clinical experience needed to succeed in the rapidly evolving field.

Christine M. Lovly, MD, PhD, has been awarded a V Scholar Grant from The V Foundation for Cancer Research. The award, funded by The Hearst Foundations, will provide $200,000 over 2 years for the study of a novel gene mutation linked to some forms of cancer.

Roman Perez-Soler, MD, has been named to the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Board of Scientific Counselors (BSC) for Clinical Sciences and Epidemiology. The BSC, consisting of distinguished cancer scientists primarily from academia, provides advice to the NCI leadership on all aspects of the Institute’s intramural and extramural research programs.

Arndt Schottelius, MD, PhD, Chief Development Officer of MorphoSys AG, announced the company’s recently published safety and efficacy data on its proprietary drug candidate MOR202. MOR202 is a fully human HuCAL antibody targeting CD38, a highly expressed and validated target in multiple myeloma (MM). The data are from a phase I/IIa clinical study in 52 heavily pretreated patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (ASH Annual Meeting Abstracts, 2015 (abstr 3035); morphosys.com).

Joseph A. Smith, Jr., MD, was recognized with the Society of Urologic Oncology’s Huggins Medal for his lifetime contributions to progress in the treatment of patients with genitourinary neoplasms. Dr. Smith is the William L. Bray Professor of Urologic Surgery at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.

Carmen C. Solórzano, MD, has been named Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology and Endocrine Surgery in the Department of Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Jeremy L. Warner, MD, MS, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Informatics and Chair of the ASCO Health Information Technology Work Group, has been named Medical Director of the Vanderbilt Cancer Registry at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.

Judith K. Wolf, MD, is a co-primary investigator for Vermillion, Inc.’s new Pelvic Mass Registry, which will be used to advance the early detection and treatment of gynecologic diseases. She is Vermillion’s Chief Medical Officer.Registry at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.

In Memoriam

Ellen G. Antal, PharmD
David N. Robinson, MD
Donn G. Mosser, MD
George D. Wilbanks, MD
Holbrook Edwin Kohrt, MD
Clementina F. Geiser, MD