New Stritch Cancer Researcher Jump Starts His Career with Schweppe Award

A new cancer investigator in the Department of Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine (Stritch) is off to a promising start thanks to funding he received to further his research on treatments to stop cancer from metastasizing in breast and ovarian cancer patients.

Wael M. ElShamy, PhD, is one of five 2007 recipients of a $100,000 Schweppe Foundation Career Development Award. The funding for the twoyear award began April 1 and will continue through March 30, 2009.

"I am so happy to receive the award because thefunding will help provide supplies for a start-up lab," said Dr. ElShamy, who joined Stritch’s research staff as a junior tenure-track faculty member in November. "I feel I have the freedom to hit the ground running."

Dr. ElShamy said the research he will be able to accomplish with the funding will strengthen his ability to compete for future grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other grant providers.

The Schweppe Foundation was established in 1947 by Chicago-area physician John S. Schweppe, MD, as a memorial to his parents, Charles H. Schweppe and Laura Shedd Schweppe, a couple with a special interest in supporting medical education. For several decades, Dr. Schweppe and his wife, Lydia, managed the foundation’s activities. They believed strongly in the importance of providing support for clinicians and researchers in the early stages of their careers in academic medicine due to the uncertain level of financial support they would receive from medical schools and outside sources. Dr. and Mrs. Schweppe also believed that Chicago-area medical schools must have access to the brightest and best-trained men and women with medical and doctorate degrees.

The foundation began offering the Career Development Award in the late 1960s to provide nurturing and sustenance to young physicians and researchers. These awards are limited to applicants from Stritch and the five other medical schools in the Chicago area, along with the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. A Schweppe family member lives in the Denver area and wanted to extend the award to his home state. Recipients must not have any major funding grants from the NIH or other sources.

Since Dr. and Mrs. Schweppe’s deaths in the late 1990s, the foundation has been guided by their children — Leigh Schweppe Buettner, Charles Schweppe and David Schweppe — along with a board of directors. The foundation also has a Medical Advisory Committee made up of Schweppe family members and faculty at the seven medical schools the foundation supports. The committee reviews all award applications, interviews the candidates and makes recommendations. "I enjoy being a part of a group that identifies talented young investigators; it’s very rewarding to see how the Schweppe Foundation supports their careers," said Medical Advisory Committee member Tarun B. Patel, PhD, chair of the Department of Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics, Stritch. "The hardest part of being on the committee is choosing award recipients from among so many excellent candidates."

Dr. Patel is thrilled that a researcher in his department is being honored with a Career Development Award; the last time a Stritch faculty member received a Schweppe Foundation Award was in 1999. "The award is good recognition for the Department of Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics, and it frees up some other department resources so they can be used toward other projects and staff," he said. "I wish we had more of these types of awards for our new investigators."

The Career Development Award has made significant contributions to the work of many researchers through the years. "Several members of the Schweppe Foundation’s Board of Directors Medical Advisory Committee were past recipients and have gone on to have very successful careers," said Dr. Patel. "The Schweppe family members are to be commended for the contribution they are making to science," added Dr. ElShamy. "They are very gracious, down-to-earth people who have made a difference in the livelihood of many new investigators."

Dr. ElShamy plans to use the award to purchase equipment for his laboratory, pay the salary of a lab assistant and travel to the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to earn new research techniques pertinent to breast cancer drug discovery. His research involves finding treatments to stop breast and ovarian cancer from spreading to other organs. He explained that when cancer stays in one part of the body it is easier to treat, and patients have a good prognosis. But when breast or ovarian cancer spreads, the disease is less treatable and patients have a poorer prognosis. "Ninety-five percent of patients who die from cancer have the type of cancer that has spread to their brain, lungs, liver or another part of their body," he said.

Dr. ElShamy is focusing his research on breast and ovarian cancers because they are among the most fatal in women: breast cancer is second most common in women (after lung cancer) and ovarian cancer is usually not diagnosed until it has become aggressive. Another project he is researching involves finding new treatments for drug resistant, aggressive, recurrent ovarian cancer.

For more information on corporate or foundation grants to help researchers at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine find treatments for cancer and other diseases, contact Heather Snyder, PhD, at hsnyder@lumc.edu or (708) 216-4607.

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