Cancer Center has new associate director for administration and finance

Doebele

Robert Doebele, M.D., Ph.D., in the lung/head and neck cancer program at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and University of Colorado Hospital, is the 2010 Paul Calabresi Clinical Oncology Research Scholar. He will receive a five-year, $525,000 training grant to provide him with mentored support leading to his becoming an independent translational cancer researcher. His clinical and lab work both focus on lung cancer.

"This grant allows me to hit the ground and start running on two projects I'm interested in while still having one day a week to care for my patients," he said. "The grant support allows me to create new jobs in my lab and to buy necessary equipment for my work."

Doebele will focus on determining how lung cancer cells are getting around a new drug targeted at the ALK gene rearrangement, which affects about 5 percent of patients. The second project aims to identify potential biomarkers for the anti-angiogenesis drug bevacizumab (Avastin). Angiogenesis is a validated target in lung cancer, but no predictive biomarkers exist for the drug.