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Albert J. Fornace, Jr. Moves to Georgetown

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Georgetown University Medical Center announced recently that Albert J. Fornace, Jr., M.D., a nationally known expert in molecular oncology and the biology of cell injury, will join its faculty. At Georgetown, Dr. Fornace will hold the Molecular Cancer Research Chair at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. His primary appointment will be in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular & Cellular Biology, in the Biomedical Graduate Research Organization.
At Georgetown, Fornace will continue his work to investigate exactly what happens to cells when they are stressed or injured, work that has thus far revealed processes underlying development of cancer and other disorders. His research into cell trauma was recently funded by a $1.4 million grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, to investigate the health risks of astronauts who are exposed to various types of radioactive particles. Fornace was recruited from the Harvard School of Public Health, where he was director of the John B. Little Center for the Radiation Sciences and Environmental Health. Before Harvard, he worked at the National Cancer Institute.
As a researcher, Dr. Fornace holds eight patents for technologies therapeutic targets and therapeutic models for treatment and prevention of cancer. His research will complement the ongoing work at GUMC in molecular targets and developmental therapeutics, and he hopes to form partnerships with local biotechnology companies and government agencies.
According to ISI Thompson Scientific, he is one of the most highly cited researchers in the field of molecular biology and molecular oncology, and has published more than 250 papers and serves on the editorial boards of eight journals, including Cancer Research, DNA Repair, and Molecular Cancer Research. Most recently he has been developing molecular approaches for the detection and treatment of radiation exposure that could occur during a terrorist attack.
“I am looking forward to continuing my research at Georgetown, where my focus on oncologic research will complement the already strong laboratory and translational cancer research programs at Lombardi,” Fornace said. “Joining a comprehensive cancer center offers opportunities to carry out research that can have a more direct impact on human cancers, such as breast and lung cancers, as well as studying how cells and organisms respond to environmental stresses.”
Before joining Harvard as a professor in the Department of Genetics and Complex Diseases, he worked with the National Cancer Institute (NCI), where he was senior investigator in radiation oncology and in molecular pharmacology, and from 1997 on served as Chief of the Gene Response Section.
Fornace’s laboratory is recognized for dissecting the response of mammalian cells to stresses within a cell’s environment -- everything from the impact of ionizing radiation to toxic substances -- that lead to the development of cancer and other diseases. This happens when stress-related signals inside the cell alter expression of multiple genes involved in cell-cycle control, programmed cell death, and DNA repair, according to Fornace.
For example, Fornace has found that key genes that control growth, such as the well-known tumor suppressor genes p53 and RB play central roles in some of these signaling pathways. He is also well known for the discovery and cloning of the Gadd (growth arrest and DNA damage inducible) genes and his laboratory was the first to demonstrate that the p53 tumor suppressor can turn “on” a stress gene, which in this case was Gadd45a. This gene has numerous functions - - it protects the skin against cancer; helps regulate another key oncogene; and plays a critical protective role in the human immune system.
His genomic and proteomic approaches to stress signaling have brought about collaborations in toxicogenomics with Pfizer to understand molecular signals and molecular pathways that can predict toxic properties of new drugs as well as environmental exposures. In addition, he is developing metabolomic approaches to understanding responses to stress, such as occur during cancer treatment or after exposure to other toxicants.
With support from the NIH and the Department of Energy’s Low-Dose Radiation Research Program, Fornace and his laboratory team have also developed a system to monitor for stress responses at the genome-wide level. In studies of cells that have been exposed to ionizing radiation, they have identified new p53- regulated genes and also dose-rate gene responses. These and others such studies have implications for homeland security monitoring of exposure to toxic agents, as well as for toxicological assessment of new pharmaceutical agents, he said.
The NASA grant is to study how the type of radiation found outside the earth’s atmosphere is may affect intestinal and colon cancer. For example, the risk of colon cancer is known to be increased in A-bomb survivors.
Fornace will have a faculty appointment in three different GUMC academic departments: Biochemistry and Molecular and Cellular Biology, Oncology, and Radiation Biology. He was jointly recruited by the heads of GUMC’s two research arms: Interim Director of Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center Anatoly Dritschilo, M.D.; and Director of the Biomedical Graduate Research Organization Vassilios Papadopoulos, D.Pharm., Ph.D..
“We are delighted that Dr. Fornace will be bringing into our labs his understanding of the signaling pathways important to carcinogenesis,” said Dr. Dritschilo. “He will be joining a team dedicated to turning such basic knowledge into treatments for our patients.”
Dr. Fornace’s joint appointment will be an excellent fit in Georgetown’s Biochemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology departments as well as in the Lombardi Cancer Center, said Dr. Papadopoulos.
“We are looking forward to working collaboratively with Dr. Fornace, because as researchers we are all interested in how adverse environmental conditions elicit stress signals that lead to change in a cell’s behavior. This has many implications for human health,” Dr. Papadopoulos said.
About Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center
The Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Georgetown University Medical Center and Georgetown University Hospital, seeks to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer through innovative basic and clinical research, patient care, community education and outreach, and the training of cancer specialists of the future. Lombardi is one of only 39 comprehensive cancer centers in the nation, as designated by the National Cancer Institute, and the only one in the Washington, DC, area. For more information, go to http://lombardi.georgetown.edu.
About Biomedical Graduate Research Organization
Home to more than 60 percent of Georgetown University's sponsored research funding, Georgetown's Biomedical Graduate Research Organization (BGRO) was created to foster cutting-edge interdisciplinary collaboration and to enhance the Medical Center’s basic science and translational research capacity, especially in the areas of neurosciences, child health and human development, cardiovascular-kidney diseases, infectious diseases and in collaborative work with researchers and clinicians from Georgetown's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. In addition to promoting this lifesaving research, a focus on educational and academic excellence in the biomedical sciences is helping to create the next generation of researchers in the United States and around the world.
About Georgetown University Medical Center
Georgetown University Medical Center is an internationally recognized academic medical center with a three-part mission of research, teaching and patient care (through our partnership with MedStar Health). Our mission is carried out with a strong emphasis on public service and a dedication to the Catholic, Jesuit principle of cura personalis -- or "care of the whole person." The Medical Center includes the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing and Health Studies, both nationally ranked, the world-renowned Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Biomedical Graduate Research Organization (BGRO).

This is an open-access article

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If the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.