Research Team 2012

The T.J. Martell Foundation is dedicated to raising funds for the innovative initial and ongoing research into the treatments and cures of leukemia, cancer and AIDS. Every fall, the T.J. Martell Foundation Scientific Advisory Board reviews applications from research laboratories to determine which studies will receive funding. All grants are rewarded based on scientific merit, and help to fund the brightest and most innovative work to support experimental research that might not otherwise receive funding. The Scientific Advisory Board seeks: -Excellence in science and clinical research. -Translational or "bench-to-bedside" research. -Innovative ideas. The Scientific Advisory Board: -Dr. Gregory Curt, Chairman -Dr. Robert Bast -Dr. Carlo Croce -Dr. Harold Moses

Gregory A. Curt, M.D., Chairman

Dr. Curt received his M.D. with distinction in research from the University of Rochester School of Medicine in 1977. He subsequently completed his training in internal medicine as an intern and resident at the New England Deaconess Hospital and as a Research Fellow at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Harvard Medical School.
 
Dr. Curt's training in Medical Oncology was completed in the National Cancer Institute's Medicine Branch from 1980-1983, following which he coordinated the intramural NCI Phase I Cancer Drug Development Program. Dr. Curt served as deputy director of NCI’s Division of Cancer Treatment from 1985-1988, overseeing the Division’s extramural research grant and contract portfolios. He was appointed Clinical Director of the National Cancer Institute in 1989 and led the intramural program at NCI increasingly towards translational research involving new therapeutic modalities including anti-cancer drugs, immunotoxins, and vaccines. He was awarded the Outstanding Service Medal of the U.S. Public Health Service in 1992. Dr. Curt joined AstraZeneca Oncology in 2002 as Senior Director and Alliance Manager for the National Institutes of Health. Under his leadership, AstraZeneca has forged important new partnerships with NIH in cancer drug development and cancer prevention and treatment. He is now US Medical Science Lead for Emerging Products, AstraZeneca Oncology and US Group Leader.

ROBERT C. BAST, JR., M.D.

Dr. Bast is Vice President for Translational Research at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. His office facilitates translation of new strategies, drugs and devices from the laboratory to the clinic, as well as the movement of human material and data from the clinic to the laboratory. Dr. Bast group coordinates programs to train physician-scientists and clinician-investigators, to facilitate development of multi-investigator grants, to provide instrumental shared resources, to develop faculty inventions and to enhance collaborations with Pharma.
 
Dr. Bast received his B.A. cum laude from Wesleyan University and his M.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School. After completing a medical internship at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, he served as a research associate at the National Cancer Institute. Returning to Boston, Dr. Bast completed a medical residency at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and a fellowship in Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He joined the faculty at Harvard as an Assistant Professor and was subsequently appointed Associate Professor at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Bast was recruited to the Duke University Medical Center in 1984 as Professor of Medicine, Microbiology and Immunology to co-direct the Division of Hematology-Oncology and  to serve as Clinical Director of the Cancer Center.  In 1987, he became the Director of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center and in 1992 he was named Wellcome Clinical Professor of Medicine in honor of R. Wayne Rundles.  In July 1994, Dr. Bast was recruited to head the Division of Medicine at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and to fill the Harry Carothers Wiess Chair for Cancer Research.  In 2000, Dr. Bast was appointed Vice President for Translational Research. In 2004, he became the Harry Carothers Wiess Distinguished University Professor for Cancer Research. Overall, Dr. Bast has published more than 600 articles and chapters and has edited the textbook Cancer Medicine.  He has been recognized by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) as one of the most frequently cited scientists in his field (top 0.5%). He continues to care for patients with breast and ovarian cancer and has been listed in the Best Doctors of America and in America’s Top Physicians.

Dr. Carlo Croce

Dr. Croce is world-renowned for his contributions involving the genes and genetic mechanisms implicated in the pathogenesis of human cancer. Dr. Croce has also uncovered the early events involved in the pathogenesis of lung, nasopharyngeal, head and neck, esophageal, gastrointestinal and breast cancers.  His discoveries have led to revolutionary innovations in the development of novel and successful approaches to cancer prevention, diagnosis, monitoring and treatment, based on gene-target discovery, verification and rational drug development.  A native of Milan, Italy, Dr. Croce earned his medical degree, summa cum laude, in 1969 from the School of Medicine, University of Rome. He began his career in the United States the following year as an associate scientist at the Wistar Institute of Biology and Anatomy in Philadelphia. In 1980, he was named Wistar Professor of Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania and Institute Professor and Associate Director of the Wistar Institute, titles he held until 1988. From 1988-91, he was director of the Fels Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Biology at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia. In 1991, Dr. Croce was named Director of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson Medical College at the Thomas Jefferson University, in Philadelphia. While at Jefferson, he discovered the role of microRNAs in cancer pathogenesis and progression, implicating a new class of genes in cancer causation.  In 2004 he moved to The Ohio State University.  Under his direction at Ohio State faculty within the Human Cancer Genetics Program conduct both clinical and basic research.

Dr. Croce, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine in the US and the Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze detta deiXL in Italy, has received almost every significant award for cancer research that one can earn. He was awarded two Outstanding Investigator awards from the National Cancer Institute, the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award and the G.H.A. Clowes Memorial Award from the American Association for Cancer Research, the John Scott Award, the Robert J. and Claire Pasarow Foundation Cancer Award, the GM Cancer Research Foundation - Charles S. Mott Prize, the Scanno Prize for Medicine, the AACR-Pezcoller Award, the Raymond Bourgine Award and Gold Medal of Paris, President of the Republic Prize, the iwCLL Binet-Rai-Medal for Outstanding Contribution to CLL Research, the Henry M. Stratton Medal from the American Society of Hematology, the Albert Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research, the 2008 Leopold Griffuel Prize awarded by the French Association for Cancer Research, The 30th Annual Jeffrey A. Gottlieb Memorial Award  and Ernst W. Bertner Memorial Award, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and most recently, an Elected Membership to The American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is principal investigator on eleven federal research grants and has more than 950 peer-reviewed, published research papers.

Harold L. Moses, M.D.
 
Dr. Moses, the Hortense B. Ingram Professor of Molecular Oncology, is director of the Frances Williams Preston Laboratories, and Professor of Cancer Biology, Medicine and Pathology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Dr. Moses was the founding director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, which he led for twelve years; he is now director emeritus.  Trained as a pathologist, Dr. Moses has devoted much of his career to basic research on growth factors and tumor suppressor genes and has received many awards for his research.  He has served as president of the American Association for Cancer Research, president of the Association of American Cancer Institutes, chair of the NIH Chemical Pathology Study Section, chair of the Molecular Oncogenesis Study Section, a member of the Integration Panel for the US Army Breast Cancer Program, co-chair of the Breast Cancer Progress Review Group for the National Cancer Institute, and chair of the National Cancer Institute Cancer Centers review panel.  He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies and was founding chair of the National Cancer Policy Forum of the Institute of Medicine from 2005-2011.