Virologue to provide UCSF conference Sokolow
Award-winning virologist Harald zur Hausen, DSc, MD, who has devoted his career to investigate the links between viral infections and the development of certain types of cancer, will give a lecture entitled "The infectious causes of human cancers," when UCSF his visit Wednesday, September 10.
The UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center invites the campus community to hear zur Hausen, who will deliver the Mauritius, Ethel and Jane Sokolow Memorial Lecture Endowment cancer on September 10 at 4 pm in Cole Hall on the Parnassus campus. A professor emeritus at the German Center for Cancer Research in Heidelberg, Germany, zur Hausen is credited with a scientific breakthrough in 1970 when he detected the Epstein-Barr virus in the tissues of two samples human tumors, Burkitt's lymphoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Since the 1970's, zur Hausen has emphasized the human papillomavirus (HPV). His research team made a series of key observations that HPV-related cancer of the cervix. This discovery has paved the way for new prevention measures, including the development of a vaccine against HPV. About 80 percent of cancer of the cervix occurs in the developing world, where in many countries it is even more dead and at an age earlier than breast cancer. Zur Hausen of work has also linked HPV to several other cancers, including cancer of the larynx, cancer of the penis and epidermal dysplasia. Zur Hausen has received numerous awards and honors for his contributions to medicine. In March, he received the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Lifetime Achievement Award in honor of his life's work, which was devoted to the study of viruses and cancer. "Dr. zur Hausen is responsible for a body of scientific research that has laid the groundwork for one of the largest events of the past year in cancer research and public health - approval of a vaccine effective for HPV, "said Margaret Foti, Ph.D., AACR chief executive officer. "We expect this vaccine will lead to a marked decrease in the incidence of cancer of the cervix and, ultimately, protect countless young women from this disease." The UCSF assistant was appointed after cardiologist Maurice Sokolow, MD, a respected researcher, teacher and longstanding member of the campus community from 1936 to 2002. Sokolow was a pioneer of modern clinical treatment of hypertension. During 1950, he was head of the hypertension section of San Francisco General Hospital. Sokolow later went to be a founding member of the UCSF Cardiovascular Research Institute. Born in New York, Sokolow moved to California as a young child with his family. He attended UCLA and UC Berkeley, then worked its way through the school of medicine at UCSF. After receiving his medical degree in 1936 at the UCSF School of Medicine, it was recognized with the Gold-Headed Cane, an honor awarded to top graduate student in medicine. |
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