Division News

Dorothy Sipkins, MD, PhD, is a hematologist-oncologist who studies cancer. But to understand the cleverness of her work, it’s helpful to think of her as an ecologist—a cell ecologist.

Sipkins identifies very specific biological habitats and interactions that allow malignant cells to move, proliferate and survive chemical attacks, traits that too often produce fatal disease.

“I love thinking about what is on the outside of the cell. What the cell is seeing. What the cell is interacting with, the 3-D environment it interacts with,” says Sipkins.

For the last 20 years, Duke Bone Marrow Transplant program patients have been holding annual reunions. The first reunion, held in 1996, was attended by 20 attendees. This year's celebration, held in September, was attended by 400.

An international research effort led by Duke Cancer Institute scientists has been working to better understand the genetic underpinnings of diffuse large B cell lymphoma and how those genes might play a role in patients’ responses to therapies. The findings were published this week in the journal Cell.

Stefanie Sarantopoulos, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine (Hematologic Malignancies and Cellular Therapy), will present her research at the Department's Research Seminar Series on Friday, Sept. 29, 2017.

To better understand blood cancers, Sandeep Davé, MD, MBA, MS, hunts down variation in the DNA sequences important to those cancers. One international project he launched is deploying comparative genetics to better classify the more than 100 blood cancers.

But the research never stops there.

The Duke-UNC Immunotherapy Training Grant (DUNC-IMTG) is a NCI-funded T32 training program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University that trains postdoctoral fellows in pre-clinical and/or clinical research focusing on tumor immunotherapy and/or stem cell transplantation immunology. Applications for 2017-18 are due at 5 p.m. on Aug. 11, 2017.

Nine Department of Medicine faculty were recognized with awards at the School of Medicine's annual Spring Faculty Meeting on May 8. 

The Duke School of Medicine has selected additional faculty members for the Duke Health Scholars and Duke Health Fellows Program. Among the faculty honored are six individuals from the Department of Medicine.

Four Medicine faculty are among the first round of recipients of the Duke Strong Start New Physician-Scientist Award.

Nelson Chao, MD, Donald D. and Elizabeth G. Cooke Cancer Research Professor and chief of the Division of Hematologic Malignancies and Cellular Therapy, will present his research at the Department's Research Seminar Series on Friday, April 28, 2017 in Duke Hospital Room 2002.