Faculty News

November 5, 2024

Arthur Riggs, Diabetes Metabolism & Research Institute Seminar Series 
Invites You to a Seminar 
Presented by 

Markus Kalkum, PhD 

Professor, Department of Immunology & Theranostics 
City of Hope 

“Electing Novel LC/MS Approaches for the Discovery of Bioactive Metabolites” 

Tuesday, November 5, 2024 
1:00 - 2:00pm 

October 29, 2024

Invites you to a seminar presented by the 

Morgan Chu Distinguished Visiting Professor:

James B. Lorens, Ph.D.

Professor

Department of Biomedicine 
University of Bergen, Norway

 

“AXL as a Therapeutic Target in Cancer”

Tuesday, November 5, 2024

2:00 PM – 3:00 PM, PDT

contact kecarter@coh.org for more information. 

October 25, 2024

Welcome

Welcome Sharon Baumel-Alterzon, Ph.D., to City of Hope as an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular & Cellular Endocrinology. We are excited that Dr. Baumel-Alterzon has accepted to be a Faculty member in the Irell & Manella Graduate School.  

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Announcing Bio-Entrepreneurship Speaker Series:

We want to make sure you see this, and we want to make sure you know that if you are curious about turning basic science into biotech companies then this might be for you…

Ever feel like there's no handbook for launching a biotech company? That's because there isn't! But we've got the next best thing for you. The Postdoctoral Training Office, the Irell and Manella Graduate School, and the Office of Technology Licensing are combining forces to bring you the Bio-Entrepreneurship Speaker Series!

That’s right! We're hosting a bio-entrepreneurship speaker series right here at City of Hope. This is your chance to meet innovators and professionals from the startup world—people you'd probably have a hard time connecting with otherwise. They're ready to share their hard-won knowledge and real-life stories you just can't find in any book or online.

- Learn from the pros: Hear firsthand about the challenges and triumphs of clinical translation and commercialization.

- Exclusive networking: Rub elbows with industry pros and fellow scientists in a relaxed, informal setting.

Event Details:

Whether you are a faculty (Clinical or BRI), a postdoctoral fellow, a clinical fellow, a grad student, in tech transfer, or just really interested in biotechnology and translating discovery into care this is a golden opportunity to gain insights that only come from lived experiences.

Don't miss out on stories and advice you won't get anywhere else—and maybe spark some ideas for your own biotech journey!

This is for internal faculty (Clinical or BRI), a postdoctoral fellow, a clinical fellow, a grad student: For more information, please contact Dr. Mark LaBarge MLaBarge@coh.org.

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October 21, 2024

Congratulations Faculty on your Research Awards:

Pi	Sponsor	Award #/ Title	Amount/ Year
Robert Jenq		P01 HL170046-01A1 Mucus-degrading intestinal bacterial and toxicities of hematopoietic cell transplantation	$12.2M Total Costs 5 years

October 8, 2024

Welcome Dr. James Lorens - Morgan Chu Visiting Professor

We are pleased to announce that Prof. James Lorens from the Department of Biomedicine at the University of Bergen School of Medicine in Bergen, Norway, will be joining us as a Morgan Chu Visiting Professor from October 1 to December 15th, 2024 hosted by Prof. Mark LaBarge.

Prof. Lorens is a recognized academic entrepreneur with nearly 40 years research and industry experience from the US and Europe. He was a postdoc in the lab of Prof. Garry Nolan at Stanford University that spun-out Rigel Pharmaceuticals in 1997. He led a technology innovation team during the start-up phase, and Oncology R&D during later expansion of the company through NASDAQ listing. Returning to Norway as a full professor in 2004, his academic lab in Bergen identified the AXL receptor tyrosine kinase as a critical cancer drug target and developed the first clinical AXL targeting agents. He founded BerGenBio ASA in 2007 to translate these results and served as CSO 2008 - 2021. BerGenBio took the first AXL kinase inhibitor (bemcentinib) into the clinic in 2013 and was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange in 2017. Bemcentinib has subsequently been studied in 14 Phase I/II studies spanning both myeloid leukemia and solid tumors, and COVID-19. His academic group also licensed anti-AXL antibodies that formed the basis for further clinical targeting agents now in 3 clinical trials. Prof. Lorens is an experienced educator and frequent invited speaker on innovation. He has served on several government innovation policy boards and is a life science industry consultant and board member. He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences.

During his stay, Prof. Lorens will co-host a seminar series on bioentrepreneurship with Dr. Mark LaBarge, Dr. Ginne Xu, and Dr. Graham Cole.  Inspired by the SPARK program at Stanford, the goal of this speaker series is to introduce IMGS faculty and students to the process of translating research results into the clinic. Invited experts will discuss different facets of the clinical translational and commercialization process.

Please join us in extending a warm welcome to Prof. Lorens at IMGS.

September 27, 2024

Congratulations Faculty on your Research Awards:

September 4, 2024

Welcome Dr. Rotem Karni - Morgan Chu Visiting Professor

We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Rotem Karni, a distinguished researcher from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, will be joining us as the Morgan Chu Visiting Professor from September 3rd to December 22nd, 2024. Dr. Karni's groundbreaking research focuses on the role of alternative splicing and splicing factors in cancer and genetic diseases, with a special emphasis on developing therapeutic strategies to target these processes. His contributions to understanding the dysregulation of splicing as a therapeutic target are truly exceptional. Dr. Karni is co-hosted by Dr. Lili Wang and Dr. Frankie Yang.

Dr. Karni earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and completed his postdoctoral research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory under the mentorship of Dr. Adrian Krainer. He is currently a full Professor and Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Hebrew University. Among his many accomplishments are numerous high-impact publications, including in Nature, patents for innovative therapeutic approaches, and successful investments in RNA therapy startups.

Dr. Karni's pioneering work on RNA splicing identified SRSF1 as a proto-oncogene and revealed its role in cancer progression through its effects on splicing targets. His research has paved the way for the development of splice-switching and decoy oligonucleotides that target specific splicing factors, offering new therapeutic possibilities for cancers such as glioblastoma, as well as genetic diseases like Duchenne muscular dystrophy. His work has also led to patented technologies with promising results in preclinical models and early-stage commercial applications.

We are confident that Dr. Karni's expertise and dedication to unraveling the complexities of RNA splicing will be an inspiration to our students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty. Please join us in extending a warm welcome to Dr. Karni at IMGS.

August 19, 2024

On behalf of the GSO’s Curriculum Committee and the graduate student body, we would like to publicly congratulate Dr. Tim Synold who has been voted the 2023-2024 Irell & Manella Graduate School of Biological Studies Professor of the Year! 

The IMGS Professor of the Year Award is awarded to one professor each year and is determined by the first-year students, who select one professor that they believe went the extra mile. This award is a testament to Dr. Synold’s dedication to teaching and his ability to make complex subjects engaging and accessible for students. 

Dr. Synold is a renowned clinical and molecular pharmacologist, with over 25 years of experience in chemistry and pharmacology. He serves as the director of the Analytical Pharmacology Laboratory and is also the scientific leader of the COH Phase I Clinical Trial team and the director of Pharmacology for the NCI-supported California Cancer Consortium. 

Here are a few words from Dr. Synold: “I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the GSO, Curriculum Committee and the first-year graduate students. It was, in fact, my privilege to have had the opportunity to teach such an exceptional group. The students’ engagement and enthusiasm inspired me to be a better instructor, and I took away from the experience at least as much as I gave in return. My module was translational and patient-focused and was something of a departure from the rest of the course, so I am particularly encouraged that this group appreciated that translational science is at the heart of what we do at the City of Hope. While scientific thought and practice is the educational focus of the Graduate School’s outstanding curriculum, we should never lose sight of why we do what we do.”