News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JANUARY 13, 2006

HOLLIER APPOINTS OCHOA INTERIM CANCER CENTER DIRECTOR

Dr. Larry Hollier, Acting Chancellor of LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, has appointed Dr. Augusto Ochoa, Director of Tumor Immunology, as interim Director of the Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. Dr. Ochoa succeeds Dr. Oliver Sartor who accepted an appointment at Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, following the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Dr. Ochoa’s appointment was effective January 10, 2006.

LSU Health Sciences Center recruited Dr. Ochoa in 1997 from the National Cancer Institute where he served as Head of the Signal Transduction Laboratory as well as Head of the Immunotherapy Laboratory. Now also a board certified Professor of Pediatrics, Dr. Ochoa completed a second residency in Pediatrics as well as a Fellowship in Allergy and Immunology at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans while continuing his cancer research.

Dr. Ochoa’s research interests are in T cell function, cytokine productions, macrophage-T cell interaction, immune regulation, immune dysfunction and disease, and tumor immunology. His research career has been marked by important discoveries reported in 75 publications and leading to inventions resulting in 12 patents and more than $16 million in research funding. His latest award, received at the end of September, is a $10.6 million grant from the Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence of the National Institutes of Health for Training Translational Researchers in Louisiana . Extremely competitive, principal investigators on COBRE grants must have more than scientific talent. The P.I. must also have a proven aptitude for research, mentoring, and administration.

According to the National Center for Research Resources, Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) support thematic multidisciplinary centers that augment and strengthen institutional biomedical research capacity by expanding and developing biomedical faculty research capability and enhancing research infrastructure, including the establishment of core facilities needed to carry out the objectives of a multidisciplinary, collaborative program. COBREs are expected to grow through the promotion of collaborative interactive efforts among researchers with complementary backgrounds, skills, and expertise; and to compete independently for external peer-reviewed center or program project grant support. In some instances, COBRE support will facilitate the development of new disease-specific research centers or augment the capability of existing centers. Each COBRE includes: 1) a Principal Investigator who is an established biomedical or behavioral research scientist with expertise central to the research theme of the center, has an active research laboratory, relevant peer-reviewed funding, and has demonstrated administrative leadership and mentoring experience; 2) three to five individual research projects—each supervised by a single junior investigator—that stand alone but share a common thematic scientific focus; and 3) at least one mentor for each junior investigator, and a development and mentoring plan addressing how the junior investigators will transition to competitive grant support from NIH Institutes and Centers or other Federal or non-Federal agencies or organizations.

A relatively new clinical discipline, translational research “translates” the knowledge learned through basic science research into new methods of diagnosing, treating, curing, or preventing disease. This type of research, conducted in people, carries innovation from the “bench” to the bedside.

“Dr. Ochoa is an extremely accomplished scientist and administrator whose ability and expertise will help the Louisiana Cancer Research Consortium continue to move toward designation by the National Cancer Institute as a comprehensive cancer center,” said Dr. Hollier. “We are fortunate to have someone of his national stature who can step into this important leadership position.”

For more information, please contact Leslie Capo, Director of Information Services at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, at (504) 452-9166.