• Title: Interview with Dr. Antonio Giordano, Director, Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine
• Artist: Zangani
• Length: 24:16 minutes (8.33 MB)
• Format: Mono 44kHz 48Kbps (CBR)

Antonio Giordano, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine; Director, Center of Biotechnology, Temple University's College of Science and Technology; and President and Chairman of the Board, Sbarro Health Research Organization. Dr. Giordano has been an internationally recognized researcher specializing in the genetics of cancer and gene therapy for 20 years.

At 26, while a post-doctoral fellow at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, Dr. Giordano discovered the protein p60, later named cyclin A, a substance that regulates growth in the cell cycle. At Temple University, he discovered Rb2/p130, a tumor suppressor gene which has since been found to be active in lung, endometrial, brain, breast, liver and ovarian cancers, and CDK9 and CDK10, guardians of the human genome. Research has subsequently shown that CDK9 plays a critical role in cell differentiation, particularly in muscles; HIV transcription; and the inception of tumors.

But Dr. Giordano has not limited his activities to the lab. Recognizing that scientists often make their most exciting discoveries while they are young, in 1993, while at Thomas Jefferson University, he founded the Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine with the generous help of Mario Sbarro, president of Sbarro, Inc., an internationally successful restaurant chain.

In 2002, the Institute forged an exciting alliance with Temple University, forming the Sbarro Health Research Organization (SHRO). Under the agreement, funds from SHRO go directly to the Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine at Temple, where promising researchers from around the globe pursue groundbreaking research in the molecular workings of cancer and other devastating diseases. The agreement with Temple was renewed in 2005, with the addition of two new research programs in molecular therapeutics and the study of the connections between obesity and cancer.

Since 1992, Dr. Giordano has been awarded nine patents, with six pending. He has published 270 papers on his work in the fields of cell cycles, gene therapy and the genetics of cancer and serves on the editorial of a number of professional journals. His work is funded by National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants, as well as individual and program project grants from SHRO. He has received a number of international awards for his work in cancer research.

The Sbarro Health Research Organization (SHRO) funds innovative and dedicated clinicians, molecular biologists, geneticists and chemists who seek to diagnose and cure cancer and cardiovascular conditions by identifying and studying the underlying molecular mechanisms of these diseases. The Organization also funds work on the links between obesity and cancer along with a new molecular therapeutics program that will spur the application of the newest discoveries to useful drug or diagnostic therapies for a wide range of diseases.

SHRO is pledged to support the study and development of new scientific strategies to diagnose and cure all forms of cancer and cardiovascular disease. In carrying out this mission, the organization is dedicated not only to attracting excellent scientists to work in the field of molecular genetics, but to training and expanding the numbers of future researchers through its outreach programs for undergraduates and high school students worldwide.

As SHRO allocates funding for pure research, the organization also recognizes the importance of applied research. Ultimately, the goal is to produce therapeutic and diagnostic treatments that will aid doctors and patients in their fight against disease. At present, most of the funds collected by SHRO are distributed to the Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine located at the College of Science and Technology of Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine was founded in 1993 by Antonio Giordano, MD, Ph.D. with the generous contributions of Mario Sbarro, owner of Sbarro, Inc., an internationally successful fast food chain. Initially, it was affiliated with Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In 2002, scientists supported by the Institute forged a three-year alliance with Temple University. Specific research at the Institute revolves around investigations of the cell cycle and growth control, as well as the changes that cause a normal cell to turn cancerous. Much of the work focuses on how disease causing genes alter the normal functions of healthy cells.

Scientists at the Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine have completed research on new technologies designed to diagnose lung, ovarian, endometrial, breast and brain tumors as well as lymphomas. Their work with gene therapy has also led to new strategies to treat tumors of the lung and brain.

Under a new agreement with the University in 2005, the Institute received continued funding from Temple, while expanding its program to include work on the relationship between obesity and cancer and a new program on molecular therapeutics, which will explore how molecular genetic research can be applied to patient therapies and diagnostics.

Posted by David Lemberg on SCIENCE AND SOCIETY home page.