Susan Desmond-Hellmann: FORBES Most Powerful Innovator

UCSF’s Chancellor, Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH,  was selected by FORBES as one of its 7 Most Powerful Innovators of 2009. You can read the story here. According to the article, Desmond-Hellmann’s  most influential innovations were  the blockbuster cancer drugs Avastin and Herceptin.

Susan Desmond-Hellmann, a physician and cancer researcher, is a hero to legions of cancer patients. While president of product development at Genentech from 2004 to April 2009, she played an integral role in the selection, testing and development of Avastin, a colon cancer drug with annual sales of $9 billion, and Herceptin, a breast cancer drug with sales of $7.8 billion. In August 2009 she became the chancellor of UCSF, a powerhouse in medical research, where she aims to continue fostering innovation in health care and science.

Why Global Health Matters to California

Innovation and Healthcare Reform

UCSF’s Elizabeth Blackburn Wins Nobel Prize in Medicine

UCSF’s Elizabeth Blackburn joins an elite group of women scientists that has received the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Her award brings the number of female recipients to 10, out of a total of 195 scientists who have received the award since it was established in 1901. Watch the video of today’s Nobel press conference:

I-Spy Trial Offers Key Insights Into Locally Advanced Breast Cancer

Dr. Laura Esserman, director of UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Breast Care Center is spearheading the development of a clinical trials model designed to accelerate and improve the efficiency with which experimental breast cancer therapies are assessed.  The strategy, which involves the use of molecular markers and MRI, utilizes “adaptive design,” in which drugs are assessed over the course of months – rather than decades – and the information used in real time to direct the course of a trial.

The series of studies are known as I-SPY (investigation of serial studies to predict therapeutic response with imaging and molecular analysis) and are being carried out  in patients with locally advanced i.e., aggressive – breast cancer. The goals of I-SPY  are to establish a clinical trials model that supports the identification of drugs targeting the molecular profiles of aggressive cancers, and to reduce the duration of the drug-assessment process from the current 15 to 20 years down to a few years.

Dr. Esserman’s team presents several findings at ASCO today.  One provocative finding shows that large, locally advanced forms of breast cancer often emerge between regular mammogram exams. These “interval” cancers present an important opportunity for doctors and patients to take advantage of neoadjuvant therapies in advance of surgery, with the hope they would be responsive. The other finding is that using molecular markers, UCSF researchers identified a subset of patients who do well regardless of how they respond to neoadjuvant treatment. They also identified a subset  with poor prognosis for whom response to neoadjuvant therapy is a good predictor of long term outcome.

Read the press release:

Susan Desmond-Hellmann Named UCSF Chancellor

Susan Desmond-Hellmann, one of FORTUNE’s Most Powerful Women in Business, will become the first woman to serve as UCSF chancellor. The appointment, unanimously approved by the UC Board of Regents today, takes effect August 3, 2009.

Desmond-Hellmann, 51, brings a deep clinical, research, and executive leadership background and commitment to high-quality patient care to the position of UCSF chancellor.  She is a board-certified physician in internal medicine and medical oncology who has dedicated much of her career to cancer research.  She was with South San Francisco-based Genentech for 14 years – as clinical scientist, chief medical officer, executive vice president and president – where she has overseen successful trials for therapeutic drugs, including Herceptin, Avastin and Rituxan, targeting a range of cancers and other diseases. Says Desmond-Hellman:

I began my career at UCSF, and my heart has never left it..My life’s work has been focused on making a difference for patients, and I cannot think of a better place than UCSF to carry that work forward.  As the health needs of the world continue to change, UCSF will continue to play a pivotal role in developing solutions through its research, teaching and clinical care across all the health disciplines.

How to “Redirect” an Alzheimer’s Patient: Caregiver Tips

How do you “redirect” a dementia patient who wants to “go home” or  speak to someone who is no longer alive? How do you respond to a loved one who is living in a reality which isn’t yours? Here are a few tips that I posted yesterday on  Defeat Dementia, a Facebook group which provides information and support to caregivers of dementia patients:

• Don’t worry about convincing her that her loved one has already passed away, but to pay attention to the emotion she is expressing.

• Sometimes it is helpful to encourage the patient to talk about her loved one. Try questions like “what did you do with your (mom) when you were little?”, “What do you want to say to your (mom)?”

• Perhaps having a photo of her loved one available that you can look at together, ask her to tell a story about her loved one, might be strategies that would satisfy her.

• If necessary, some caregivers have tried a white lie, like “Your (mother) lives someplace else now.” or “I can’t take you there today. Maybe tomorrow.”

• It’s helpful to try to stay in the patient’s reality, and the death of her loved one is no longer a part of her reality, so saying her (mother) is dead only confuses her.

Source: UCSF Memory and Aging Center

For more information, visit the Defeat Dementia website, join our Facebook Group, visit the UCSF Memory and Aging Channel on YouTube, or check out UCSF’s Memory and Aging Center website.

links for 2009-02-24

• Tweetable Art: 10 Twitter Tips for Artists
  (tags: web2.0 twitter pr art)
• Could Living in a Mentally Enriching Environment Change Your Genes?: Scientific American
  (tags: genetics neuroscience memory)
• Why Hair Turns Gray Is No Longer A Gray Area: Our Hair Bleaches Itself As We Grow Older
  (tags: aging)
• Human Stem Cells Provide A New Model For Lou Gehrig’s Disease
  (tags: neuroscience stemcells)
• Glam edits Oscars Twitter feed and makes money » VentureBeat
  (tags: twitter advertising socialmedia)
• Who’s Hiring in Tech? 2009 Numbers So Far – ReadWriteWeb
  (tags: technology trends economy)
• WWGD? – The scientific solution to the world’s problems « BuzzMachine
  (tags: google)
• 5 iPhone apps that will make you a hero – Download Squad
  (tags: iphone apps)
• Opinion: Phony War on Torture – WSJ.com
  (tags: politics terrorism obama)
• Forget change: GOP eyes retro strategy – Jeanne Cummings – POLITICO.com
  (tags: politics obama)
• The Netbook Effect: How Cheap Little Laptops Hit the Big Time
  (tags: netbooks mobile gadgets)
• FBI Director Warns of Terror Attacks on U.S. Cities – washingtonpost.com
  (tags: terrorism)
• LG unveils X110 Netbook with built in Holy Quran software | LG Electronics
  (tags: gadgets netbooks)
• DEBKAfile – Ahmadinejad in Djibouti plants Iranian foot in E. Africa
  (tags: Iran terrorism israel)

New Theory About the Cause of Alzheimer’s Disease – a Prenatal Link?

New research at Genentech provides a provocative theory about the cause of Alzheimer’s disease and   suggests potential new targets for therapies to treat it, reports Ron Winslow in the February 19 issue of the Wall Street Journal.

The prevailing view about what causes Alzheimer’s disease is that  deposits called beta amyloid accumulate in the brain, destroying nerve cells and ultimately, the patient’s memory.  Now, new research shows there’s a very different way of looking at the disease.

The Genentech/Salk Institute team of researchers propose that a normal process in which excess nerve cells and nerve fibers are pruned from the brain during prenatal development is somehow reactivated in the adult brain and “hijacked” to cause the death of such cells in Alzheimer’s patients, writes Winslow.

According to Marc Tessier-Lavigne, executive vice president, research drug discovery at Genentech, the new findings offer evidence that “Alzheimer’s is not just bad luck, but rather it is the activation of a pathway that is there for development purposes.”

Genentech has identified potential drug candidates based on the findings and says that it may take many years for any potential treatment to be developed.

The research was published Thursday in the journal Nature.

NOTE: The photos of normal and dead nerve fibers above are from Dr. Tessier-Lavigne.

links for 2009-02-17

• DEBKAfile – Was the late ex-Iranian a US doctor or bio-weapon scientist?
  (tags: terrorism)
• Android G2 Hands On: Close to Perfection
  (tags: mobile android gadgets)
• Survey Of Insular Social Media Elite Says: Twitter Is Better Than Facebook For Businesses
  (tags: socialmedia twitter facebook)
• Buying Experiences, Not Possessions, Leads To Greater Happiness
  (tags: marketing neuroscience)
• Swedish study links telomeres and ageing
  (tags: aging longevity)
• Cognitive Daily: Smells — even smells we don’t notice — affect our judgment of others
  (tags: cognition)
• Kicking the Habit for Your Pet – Well Blog – NYTimes.com
  (tags: health pets)
• Where Are Old Memories Stored in the Brain?: Scientific American
  (tags: memory neuroscience)
• The Biology of Belief – TIME
  (tags: mindfulness neuroesthetics)
• Twitter Professors: 18 People to Follow for a Real Time Education
  (tags: web2.0 socialmedia twitter)
• Technology Review: Drug Erases Fearful Memories
  (tags: neuroscience)
• Pew Internet: Twitter and status updating
  (tags: socialmedia twitter microblogging trends)
• WMC: HTC the Announces HTC Touch Diamond2 and HTC Touch Pro2 : Akihabara News .com
  (tags: mobile gadgets)
• ASUS announces WiMAX-equipped Eee PC 1000HG – Engadget
  (tags: netbooks)
• Palm Pre to support Flash : Boy Genius Report
  (tags: mobile gadgets)
• Health Blog : Cleveland Clinic Goes to Vegas
  (tags: neuroscience)