Newsmakers: September 2017
Adams serving as plastic surgery society officer
Dr. William Adams Jr., Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery, has been named Secretary of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS). A member of The Aesthetic Society since 2002, he also has a private practice and serves as Chief of Plastic Surgery at Parkland Health & Hospital System.
In 2009, he founded and currently serves as the President and Chief Medical Officer for The Plastic Surgery Channel, a multimedia company and information source for plastic surgery operated by plastic surgeons. He has published numerous papers and has presented multiple lectures on the international level. He also serves on the breast editorial board of Aesthetic Surgery Journal and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
A Princeton University graduate, Dr. Adams was in the top 10 percent of his class at Vanderbilt University Medical School. From 1992 to 1997, he completed his residency training in general surgery and plastic surgery at UT Southwestern, and also took an additional year of fellowship in plastic and reconstructive surgery research.
The ASAPS is the leading professional organization devoted entirely to aesthetic plastic surgery and cosmetic medicine of the face and body, comprised of over 2,600 board-certified plastic surgeons. All members worldwide adhere to a strict code of ethics and must meet stringent membership requirements.
Choy named Fellow by radiation oncology society
Dr. Hak Choy, Chairman of Radiation Oncology since 2003, is one of 23 distinguished members of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) selected to receive the ASTRO Fellow designation in 2017.
Initiated in 2006, the prestigious Fellows program recognizes those who have been an active, emeritus or, beginning this year, international member of ASTRO for at least 15 years, have given the equivalent of 10 years of service to the Society, and have made significant contributions to the field of radiation oncology in the areas of research, education, patient care, or service and leadership.
Including this year’s class, only 292 of ASTRO’s more than 10,000 members worldwide hold the Fellow designation. Successful candidates must be nominated by a current ASTRO Fellow, have strong support credentials, undergo a committee review, and be approved by ASTRO’s Board of Directors.
The 2017 Fellows were recognized during ASTRO’s 59th annual meeting, held Sept. 24-27 in San Diego.
Dr. Choy, who holds the Nancy B. and Jake L. Hamon Distinguished Chair in Therapeutic Oncology Research, is known internationally for his pioneering work showing the benefit of combining paclitaxel and other chemotherapeutic agents with radiation treatment. In a career that has spanned more than three decades, Dr. Choy has worked with almost every new compound that has been developed to combine with radiation, and has distinguished himself as a leading expert in chemoradiation therapy.
Recent advancements in technology have impacted day-to-day patient care, particularly for those with lung cancer. Radiation Oncology at UT Southwestern, within a few short years, has become one of the leading institutional departments in the country housing all of these technologies, and Dr. Choy has initiated training programs to educate physicians on how to effectively use them in the clinic.
He graduated from UT Medical Branch in Galveston and completed a residency in internal medicine/radiation oncology at The Ohio State University, as well as a radiation oncology residency at UT Health Science Center in San Antonio. Dr. Choy was Vice Chair of Radiation Oncology at Vanderbilt University before joining UT Southwestern’s faculty.
Kliewer holding Strauss Distinguished Chair in Developmental Biology
Dr. Steven Kliewer, Professor of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology, has been selected to hold the Diana K. and Richard C. Strauss Distinguished Chair in Developmental Biology.
Dr. Kliewer, elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences in 2015, is a recognized expert in the field of orphan nuclear receptors. His extensive body of work on the subject began while he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute from 1990 to 1993.
A faculty member at UT Southwestern since 2002, Dr. Kliewer runs a joint laboratory with Dr. David Mangelsdorf, Chairman of Pharmacology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at the Medical Center, that focuses on the roles of nuclear receptors and endocrine fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) in regulating diverse aspects of physiology and pathophysiology, including metabolism and metabolic disease. At UTSW, Dr. Mangelsdorf holds the Alfred G. Gilman Distinguished Chair in Pharmacology, and the Raymond and Ellen Willie Distinguished Chair in Molecular Neuropharmacology, in Honor of Harold B. Crasilneck, Ph.D.
Earlier this year, the researchers demonstrated the mechanism by which the stress hormone FGF21 keeps digestive enzymes from damaging the pancreas. The investigation, published in Cell Metabolism, points to the possibility of new therapies for pancreatitis, a potentially life-threatening inflammation which can be caused by factors that include heavy, long-term alcohol consumption, gallstones, and certain hereditary conditions. Acute pancreatitis hospitalizes about 210,000 U.S. residents annually.
Dr. Kliewer graduated from Brown University in 1985 with a degree in biochemistry before earning his Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of California, Los Angeles (1990). Following his fellowship, Dr. Kliewer joined Glaxo Inc., where he co-founded a scientific group devoted to exploiting orphan nuclear receptors as drug discovery targets. Among his achievements at Glaxo was the discovery that the xenobiotic receptor PXR is responsible for an important class of drug-drug interactions. A practical consequence of this work is that new drugs can be screened efficiently for harmful interactions with other medications.
Noted radiation oncologist gets lifetime achievement honor
Dr. Larry Kun, Professor of Radiation Oncology and of Pediatrics, has received the Memphis Business Journal’s Health Care Heroes Lifetime Achievement recognition.
Dr. Kun, who joined the faculty at UT Southwestern in January, previously served at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for 32 years, establishing a department to study and optimize radiation therapy for children and initiating the hospital’s multidisciplinary brain tumor program, now the nation’s largest clinical and translational research program in pediatric brain tumors. Under his leadership, St. Jude developed novel clinical trials in radiation oncology for pediatric solid tumors, undertook unique trials in some of the most challenging areas of pediatric neuro-oncology, and studied and ultimately changed the role of radiation therapy in childhood leukemias.
Dr. Kun’s career at St. Jude spanned 1984 to 2016 and included recent service as the hospital’s Clinical Director and Executive Vice President (2013-2016). In that role, Dr. Kun guided clinical care, operations, and quality programs for the nearly 8,000 patients who are treated or receive post-treatment care at St. Jude annually.
A graduate of Penn State University, Dr. Kun earned his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia before completing a residency at Penrose Cancer Hospital in Colorado Springs. He then served as a clinical associate at the National Cancer Institute, and later as an assistant radiotherapist at the Rotterdam Radiotherapy Institute in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Before joining St. Jude, he was on the faculty at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Dr. Kun’s honors include the Gold Medal from the American Society for Radiation Oncology, the Pediatric Oncology Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Janeway Medal from the American Radium Society, and the Pioneer Award from the Children’s Brain Tumor Foundation. Dr. Kun is a founding member of the Alliance for Childhood Cancer. He has published more than 420 peer-reviewed journal articles, the initial textbook in Pediatric Radiation Oncology, and numerous chapters in major textbooks.
Dr. Kun relocated to Dallas for family reasons with plans to retire, but was impressed with the progressive leadership at UT Southwestern, the Radiation Oncology Department, and the Pediatric Oncology Program and quickly accepted a faculty position at the Medical Center.
Hepatologist Singal selected to hold David Bruton, Jr. Professorship
Dr. Amit Singal, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Clinical Sciences, has been selected to hold the David Bruton, Jr. Professorship in Clinical Cancer Research.
Dr. Singal’s clinical and research focus is on liver cancer, which is the ninth-leading cause of cancer-related death in the U.S. Liver cancer is particularly problematic in Texas, which leads the nation in liver cancer incidence and mortality. In addition to being the Medical Director of the UT Southwestern Liver Tumor Program, he also currently serves as Clinical Chief of Hepatology.
Dr. Singal’s research examines how best to prevent liver cancer or detect it early before it becomes incurable. Although it is established that people with advanced liver disease who are at risk for liver cancer should be screened every six months, less than 20 percent of patients are following these guidelines – so many liver cancer patients are diagnosed when their cancer is advanced. Dr. Singal is evaluating interventions to increase liver cancer screening use among at-risk individuals as well as working to find more effective tests to screen for liver cancer.
Dr. Singal earned his medical degree at the University of Michigan before training at the University of Washington for his residency in internal medicine. He then returned to the University of Michigan to completing a Master of Science as well as fellowships in gastroenterology and transplant hepatology before joining the UT Southwestern faculty in 2010.
