CHORI Scientist Receives Distinguished Schroepfer Medal
CHORI is pleased to announce that CHORI scientist Cedric Shackleton, PhD, of the Center for Genetics, has received the 2010 Schroepfer Medal of the American Oil Chemists Society (AOCS) for his contributions to the development and use of mass spectrometry in the study of disorders of sterol and steroid synthesis and metabolism. The members of this long-established society are not interested in petroleum oil, but rather lipids – or fats – naturally found in the body.

"George J. Schroepfer, Jr. was a famed research in sterols, or compounds related to cholesterol, who died about ten years ago," explains Dr. Shackleton. "This biannual award was established in his memory, and it's a great honor to receive it after my lifetime of working in this field."

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CHORI Announces New Deputy Director
CHORI is pleased to announce that senior scientist and chair of CHORI’s Center for Genetics, David I.K. Martin, MD, will be taking on the role of CHORI deputy director. A principal investigator at CHORI for the last 5 years, Dr. Martin looks forward to actively participating in the leadership of the institute.

“I have a very positive attitude about CHORI and its prospects, and I’d like to do whatever I can to continue to build this institute into everything it has the potential to be,” says Dr. Martin.

Transfusion in Thalassemia Patients Correlates with Increased Body Composition
A new study just published in the Journal of Pediatrics evaluates for the first time the relationship between transfusion and overall body composition in patients with thalassemia. The study was conducted through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded Thalassemia Clinical Research Network (TCRN), established in 1998 as a means to provide a national structure to conduct clinical studies in thalassemia. Children's Hospital Research Center Oakland has been one of only 5 original participating centers.

“Clinical practitioners have always had the sense that thalassemia patients are underweight, so we wanted to actually look at it from an evidence-based perspective,” says CHORI scientist and first author, Ellen Fung, PhD.

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