Senator Boxer at UCSD Cancer Center

Thursday, November 12, 2009

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer met with staff of the UCSD Cancer Center to discuss the importance of ARRA grants for medical research as a way to spur economic growth and find cures for diseases including cancer.

Senator Boxer discusses the importance of ARRA grants for medical research as a way to spur economic growth and find cures for diseases including cancer.
Senator Boxer is greeted by Moores UCSD Cancer Center Director Dr. David Carson and UCSD Chancellor Marye Ann Fox.
David Cheresh, Professor of Pathology at UCSD he explains his work on pancreatic cancer funded by AARA. He is using the funding to study new drugs to target identified molecular pathway that is associated with the most aggressive forms of pancreatic cancer. Based on this work so far, they are now planning clinical trials at the Cancer Center.
Dr. Quyen Nguyen a surgeon at UCSD Medical Center discusses how Dr. Tsien’s work on isolating cancer cells is applied to treat patients.
Nobel Laureate Dr. Roger Tsien explains his ARRA funded research on infrared fluorescent proteins. The funding will help Dr. Tsien transform bacteria into fluorescent proteins that can glow through the body. He hopes that this work will help determine how cancers develop and how infections grow.