Researcher to hold John C. West
Endowed Chair
Kenneth D. Tew, Ph.D., D.Sc., professor and chairman of the Department
of Cell and Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, was
appointed the John C. West Endowed Chair in Cancer Research. He joined MUSC in the spring of 2004 from Philadelphia where he served as chairman of Pharmacology at Fox Chase Center and held the G. Willing Pepper Chair in Cancer Research. Tew also held an adjunct professorship of pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Honoring Dr. Ken
Tew, back row center, with the John C. West Endowed Chair in Cancer
Research are Dr. Andrew Kraft, from left, Sen. Fritz Hollings; board
member for the Heart and Vascular Center and the Health Sciences
Foundation, Paula Harper Bethea; MUSC President Dr. Ray Greenberg; a
former senator and West’s family friend T. Allen Legare Jr. Front
row from left are the family of Gov. John Carl West, son John C. "Jack"
West Jr., wife Lois West, and daughter Shelton West Bosley. Holding three patents and an outstanding publication record including more than 100 papers in leading peer-review journals, Tew has been an asset to Hollings Cancer Center. Recently, he received an American Cancer Society scientific research award. His labs made significant contributions in laying the groundwork for the development of several novel chemotherapeutic agents.
“Dr. Tew brings to us his mass knowledge of cancer drug development and biochemical and molecular characterization of cancer drug responses. This appointment recognizes his international reputation in cancer drug development and testing,” said Andrew Kraft, M.D., director of Hollings Cancer Center. “He is a valuable resource for Hollings Cancer Center, and his leadership of the department has been vital in securing research funding from private sources.”
Kraft also hopes that Tew’s endowed chair appointment will help increase funding needed to continue cancer drug development research and accelerate Hollings Cancer Center’s efforts to achieve designation as a “comprehensive cancer center” by the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
The John C. West Endowed Chair in Cancer Research was established in 2005 in memory of former S.C. Gov. John Carl West. As a magna cum laude graduate of The Citadel, West served as a lawyer and a major in the United States Army. From 1966-1970, West served as the lieutenant governor. In 1970, he was elected governor. After leaving the governor’s office in 1975, West returned to private law practice and served as U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. He later became a professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of South Carolina and, in 1993, joined the law firm of Bethea, Jordan & Griffin in Hilton Head Island.
In 2003, West was diagnosed with liver cancer and became a patient of the Medical University. He died on March 21, 2004.
If you would like to support the John C. West Endowed Chair in Cancer Research or have any questions, contact the Hollings Cancer Center director of development, Rachael Smith at 792-7694 or e-mail smithrmd@musc.edu.
Friday, Jan. 13, 2006
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