Renowned scientists to hold MUSC/USC
endowed chairs
“Last week we have filled the
second and third endowed chairs under the Centers of Economic
Excellence Program and funded through the South Carolina Education
Lottery. The first of these chairs was filled in February with the
naming of Dr. Kenneth Tew as holder of the John C. West Endowed Chair
in Cancer Research, South Carolina Centers of Economic Excellence. The
second and third chairs are part of two collaborative MUSC/USC Centers
of Excellence and the holders of these chairs will hold their faculty
appointments in the South Carolina College of Pharmacy. We are proud to
announce that two nationally regarded scientists, Drs. John J.
Lemasters and Charles D. Smith, have been recruited for these chairs.”—Dr. John Raymond, vice president for academic affairs and provost
Experience with powerful research tool
John J. Lemasters M.D., Ph.D., is a world-renowned pioneer in a special type of microscopy—laser scanning confocal microscopy—a powerful research tool allowing the visualization of the functioning of single cells with an unprecedented degree of clarity. The difference between older techniques of microscopy and laser scanning confocal microscopy has been likened by Lemasters to that between a typical X-ray, which provides a static, uni-dimensional view of tissue, and an MRI (magnetic resonance image), which provides a three-dimensional visualization of living tissue.
Dr. John LemastersLemasters will be working at MUSC directly with Rick Schnellmann, Ph.D., professor and chairman of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Yusuf Hannun, M.D., professor and chairman of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. “Both Dr. Hannun and I are excited that he will not only bring this important technology to our own departments, but he will make it available to researchers across the MUSC and USC campuses,” said Schnellmann.
“The Centers of Economic Excellence Program has enabled us to recruit a scientist of Dr. Lemasters’ caliber,” continued Schnellmann. “He is an established researcher in his field, working at a prestigious university. The endowed chair and the opportunity to head our new Center for Cell Injury, Death and Regeneration were major factors in our ability to attract him to our program. We anticipate he will bring with him high caliber junior faculty members.”
Lemasters will continue funded research projects in his new position. One of his major interests is understanding how the liver becomes damaged during chronic alcohol use. He has studied the mechanism of liver cell death in response to alcohol and other toxicants and has shown that such toxicants can cause liver cells to die by stimulating changes in the mitochondria, the power source of the cell that is indispensable to the function of individual cells.
“Dr. Lemasters is a world-renowned investigator in mitochondrial biology,” said Hannun. “Mitochondria have been known for several decades as the energy powerhouse of the cells. Recently they have become appreciated as key regulators of whether cells survive or undergo cells death. This is of great importance for cancer research, transplant research, cardiac disease, neurological diseases and others.”
Lemasters comes from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he served on the faculty since 1977. Currently he is a professor in departments of Cell Biology & Anatomy and Surgery. He also directs the university’s Cell and Molecular Imaging Facility and the Confocal Imaging Facility.
Holder of five patents, Lemasters edited four textbooks and authored nearly 400 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He is an associate editor of “Gastroenterology” and serves or has served on editorial boards of seven professional publications.
A cum laude graduate of Yale University, Lemasters holds an M.D. and Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University where he also held an NIH predoctoral fellowship.
Experience with Drug Discovery Core
Charles D. Smith, Ph.D., will direct MUSC’s new Drug Discovery Core. The goal of this core is to identify and develop compounds with potential therapeutic value. Smith brings five years experience as director of a similar facility he established at Penn State University.
Dr. Charles Smith “Dr. Smith brings to us a wealth of experience in the development of high throughput screening and quantitative structure activity relationships (QSAR), which will be a valuable resource for researchers across the MUSC campus,” said Rick Schnellmann, Ph.D., professor and chairman of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in whose department Smith will be appointed.
“This is extremely important technology in drug development,” explained Schnellmann. “If a researcher knows the target enzyme or receptor he wants to inhibit, the high throughput screening allows him to test 10 to 20 thousand compounds from a chemical library and quickly determine if any of the compounds inhibit the target. QSAR technology, in turn, determines the chemical structural requirement for this action, identifying lead compounds. This compound may not be the drug, but gives you the starting point to build upon for ultimate drug development.”
Smith’s NIH-funded research interests center on the development of anticancer drugs, specifically for breast cancer. He is also interested in the development of compounds for HIV, acute renal failure, diabetic retinopathy and arthritis. Schnellmann believes that the capabilities in cancer drug development Smith brings to the MUSC and USC campuses are not only a major resource for MUSC researchers, but will help the Hollings Cancer Center in its quest for NCI designation.
Smith, a holder of seven patents in his field, also brings a new biotech company to South Carolina. He is founder, president and CEO of Apogee Biotechnology Corporation. The company is involved in biomedical research focused on the discovery and development of novel therapeutics for life-threatening diseases, especially cancer and AIDS. It is a privately held corporation funded by research grants from the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“We are grateful to the Centers of Economic Excellence Program whose support has enabled us to recruit someone not only with superior scientific expertise, but with entrepreneurial skills, blending academics with industry for the ultimate benefit of cancer and other patients,” said Schnellmann.
Smith served as professor of pharmacology at Penn State College of Medicine and director of the Drug Discovery Core Facility since 2001.
He has served on a number of National Cancer Institute study sections and review committees and as a reviewer for a variety of scientific journals including Cancer Research, Molecular Pharmacology and the British Journal of Cancer. He published some 70 articles in peer reviewed journals.
A magna cum laude graduate of Michigan State University, Smith received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Michigan State University and served as a research associate at Duke University Medical Center.
Friday, Sept. 23, 2005
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