FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.

 

For more information, contact:

Kelley Willis, UT Cancer Institute

722-0629 or

Elizabeth Maynard-Garrett, APR

UTHSC, 448-4957

 

Interim Director and Deputy Director Named for UT Cancer Institute

 

Memphis, Tennessee (August 9, 2004) -- The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) is pleased to announce that Mohammad Jahanzeb, MD, UT’s Van Vleet Professor in Medical Oncology, has been named interim director of the UT Cancer Institute and Lawrence Pfeffer, PhD, Muirhead Chair of Excellence in Pathology, has been named interim deputy director.

Dean of the UT College of Medicine, Henry G. Herrod, MD, commented, “We are excited to have these two individuals officially named as part of the UT Cancer Institute’s leadership team. As we begin building the basic science facility in December of this year and expanding research opportunities, their expertise and leadership will play a key role in moving the institute forward.”

Dr. Jahanzeb is currently the chief of the UT Division of Hematology/Oncology in the Department of Medicine and he will retain this title. In his new role, he will be responsible for planning and developing strategies for resources and space utilization within the cancer center.

 “Taking this step will help us facilitate recruitment of physicians and scientists to the Cancer Institute, as well as in programmatic development with our current community oncologists,” Dr. Jahanzeb said.  “I am proud to accept this opportunity, and I appreciate the confidence that the UT faculty, my fellow oncologists, Methodist University Hospital and the community have shown in naming me to this role. This is a daunting challenge; but working together, we will be able to achieve our goal of being named an NCI-designated cancer center and providing a complete cancer facility for patients in the Mid-South.” 

Dr. Jahanzeb came to Memphis in 2002 from Florida where he spent almost seven years as the research director at the Comprehensive Cancer Center at Boca Raton and as assistant professor of biomedical research at Florida Atlantic University.

Dr. Pfeffer is vice chair and director of the graduate program in pathology, as well as director of basic research for the Cancer Institute.  In his new position, he will be assuming a more direct role in organizing and directing the research initiatives within the Cancer Institute.

 Dr. Pfeffer joined UT in 1991 after moving here from New York where he was a faculty member at the Rockefeller University for twelve years. He received a doctorate degree from Sloan-Kettering Division of the Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences and was a postdoctoral research fellow at Rockefeller University.

 

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