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Melvyn Berlinsky Distinguished Endowed Chair announced The Hollings Cancer Center announced Aug. 29 that Robert M. Gemmill, Ph.D., is the Melvyn Berlinsky Distinguished Endowed Chair in Cancer Research.   Sen. Fritz Hollings congratulates Melvyn Berlinsky at the presentation of his chair Aug. 29. The new chair was established by a gift to the Hollings Cancer Center by the children and grandchildren of Melvyn Berlinsky, an MUSC trustee since 1971. A Citadel graduate, Berlinsky has served on a number of key MUSC board committees, including serving as chairman of the Education, Faculty, and Student Affairs Committee since 1982. Berlinsky also is a member of the Hospital Authority board.   Gemmill joined MUSC’s Department of Medicine faculty in June. A noted cancer researcher, Gemmill will work with longtime colleague Harry A. Drabkin, M.D., Ph.D., chief of MUSC’s Division of Medical Oncology and Hematology. They will continue their research, which began at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, on how genes are altered during cancer development.   Dr. Robert Gemmill Gemmill graduated magna cum laude with a biology degree, and a minor in chemistry, from the University of Connecticut. He earned his doctorate in biochemistry from Cornell University. He underwent post-doctoral training in molecular biology for one year at Cornell University and for a second year at Arizona State University.   In 1983 Gemmill was named director of Molecular Genetics at the Southwest Biomedical Research Institute in Scottsdale, Ariz. He then worked at the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute for Cancer Research in Denver, Colo., before moving to the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center as assistant professor in the Department of Medicine, where he joined forces with Drabkin to investigate kidney and lung cancers.     Friday, Sept. 7, 2007 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.