PI HIGHLIGHTS

Gerd P. Pfeifer of the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, past grantee and recently-retired TRDRP Scientific Advisory Committee member, was recently appointed to the first Lester M. and Irene C. Finkelstein Chair in Biology. Dr. Pfeifer is known for identifying the molecular link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer and recently received the largest of eight national grants from NIH as part of The Cancer Genome Atlas. The project develops technologies to detect and treat cancer. Congratulations Dr. Pfeifer!

GlaxoSmithKline is licensing nicotine vaccine technology developed by Kim Janda of the Scripps Research Institute. The company hopes to move the vaccine into clinical trials in the next 18 months.

Karen Messer, Dennis R. Trinidad, John P. Pierce, and their colleague Wael K. Al-Delaimy at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego have found that young adults are not only more likely than older adults to have tried to quit smoking, but are also more likely to quit successfully. Their paper “Smoking Cessation Rates in the United States: A Comparison of Young Adult and Older Smokers” was published in the Jan. 2, 2008 American Journal of Public Health.