As a physican-scientist, my laboratory-based research focuses on the rapid translation of discoveries into clinical applications. I am the Hansen Surface Professor of Medicine, Chief of Hem/Onc and Deputy Director of the University of New Mexico Cancer Center. As a physician-scientist, in addition to my administrative leadership responsibilities, I currently treat cancer patients and co-direct the Arap/Pasqualini Laboratory at the UNMCC. As a matter of record, Dr. Pasqualini and I have a long-standing collaboration and have led a joint laboratory (please note that we are husband and wife) since October 1999. We have published over 150 original peer-reviewed research manuscripts and, with very few exceptions, such publications are a team science effort. Our research group currently includes PhD or MD/PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty (assistant and associate professors), research technicians, and administrative staff members. Our central working hypothesis is that differential protein expression in the human vascular endothelium associated with normal or diseased tissues offers the potential for developing novel diagnostic, imaging, and therapeutic strategies. In essence, our research program uses combinatorial library selection (peptide- and antibody-based) to discover, validate, and exploit the vascular biochemical diversity of endothelial cell surfaces towards a new vascular-targeted pharmacology. Such targeting technologies may lead to the developemtn of ligand-directed agents for application int he treatment of cancer patients. Translational applications, such as first-in-man clinical trials will determine the value of this strategy. Indeed, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted "save-to-proceed" status for our first vascular-targeted IND in 2009 and a first-in-human study has already been completed, successfully meeting its biological end points. A second Phase I study is now active. Two other drugs are in pre-IND stage and several others in pre-clinical laboratory phase. Long-term, the broader vision of our research is a large-scale mapping of the receptors in human vasculature towards a new ligand-directed pharmacology.
