Source: media-newswire.com
Author: press release

Leading human papilloma virus ( HPV ) expert Maura Gillison, MD, PhD, will join The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute on Jan. 1 as a professor of medicine in the division of hematology and oncology and a member of the Cancer Control and Viral Oncology Programs in Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center. She will hold the Jeg Coughlin Chair in Cancer Research.

Focusing on the role that HPV plays in the development of head and neck cancers, Gillison was the first to identify HPV infection as the cause of certain oral cancers and identified multiple sex partners as the most important risk factor for these cancers. At Ohio State, Gillison plans to build a program focused on identifying associations between infections and cancers, with the ultimate goal of applying discoveries to prevent and treat cancer.

A frequent guest on national network newscasts and quoted extensively in cancer trade and national consumer publications, Gillison was recruited from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she was an associate professor and a member of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. The American Society of Clinical Oncology named Gillison’s research on HPV-associated head/neck cancers as one of six major clinical cancer advances for 2007.

“Recruiting Dr. Gillison is part of our aggressive and ongoing strategy to recruit the world’s best and brightest cancer researchers and clinicians to The Ohio State University,” said Dr. Michael Caligiuri, director of Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center and CEO of The James. “To become a top 10-NCI funded cancer program, we must have researchers and physicians dedicated to bringing the latest discoveries in the laboratory to the patient in the form of novel treatments. With Dr. Gillison’s groundbreaking research, she will continue to advance the standard of care for HPV-associated head and neck cancers.”

Gillison has published and lectured widely on the link between HPV and oral cancer. Her research is funded by grants from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute and the Oral Cancer Foundation, among others.

The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute is one of only 41 NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the United States and the only freestanding cancer hospital in the Midwest. Funding for cancer research at the OSUCCC has quadrupled over the last 10 years. Ranked among the top 20 cancer hospitals in the nation, The James is the 172-bed adult patient-care component of the cancer program at The Ohio State University.