Daniel L. Simmons has been appointed director of the Cancer Research Center at Brigham Young University. He replaces Byron K. Murray, who had directed the center since 1990.
The center, which was founded in the 1970s, has a stated goal of conquering cancer through research and education. According to its new director, the BYU Cancer Research Center shares with other cancer research institutions the responsibility of doing cutting-edge research that will lead to the prevention and cure of cancer.However, Simmons says, "BYU's center must have an additional focus of training undergraduates in cancer research during the process."
He said he takes seriously former BYU president Dallin Oaks' inaugural charge that BYU should offer students "the vision of the possibility that (BYU) could make a significant contribution to the discovery of a cure for cancer."
"I plan to help undergraduates during the next decade realize they can be part of the invaluable cancer research that is under way at BYU," he says. "I also want to help them have a vision that they can continue to make contributions elsewhere in cancer research through a lifetime of learning."
He said he intends to promote that vision by giving qualified undergraduates the opportunity to do significant lab work dedicated to triumph over the dreaded disease.
"Research costs as well as expenses such as fellowships for involving these students obviously will require major funding, which we hope to obtain from external sources," he says.
An associate professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry at BYU, Simmons received his doctorate in oncology from the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1986. He did postdoctoral work at Harvard University from 1986 until 1989, when he joined the BYU faculty. During 1995 and 1996, Simmons did research in London in the laboratory of Sir John Vane, a Nobel Laureate in medicine.
Simmons' work focuses on cyclooxygenases, which are enzymes inhibited by aspirin and related non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS). The second form of cyclooxygenase, COX-2, first described by Simmons in 1991, is the target of major research by pharmaceutical companies who hope to use it in developing better drugs for the treatment of inflammatory diseases and other diseases, including cancer.
Several recent studies of cancer trends in humans have shown that NSAID usage is associated with a decrease in cancer of the gastrointestinal tract, and this reduction in cancer incidence is thought to be mediated through inhibition of the enzyme Simmons discovered.
The BYU Cancer Research Center works closely with the BYU Cancer Awareness group, which is a student affiliate group interested in cancer and is open to all interested students.
Anyone wishing further information about the BYU Cancer Center may contact Simmons at 378-4441.