It's fitting that Dr. Shahin Rafii, the Arthur Belfer Professor of Genetic Medicine and internationally acclaimed cancer and vascular biologist and stem-cell authority, has been named by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) as one of 43 new HHMI investigators, an honor bestowed on only the nation's most promising and gifted biomedical scientists. Dr. Rafii has clearly ascended to career heights that would thrill even the institute's namesake, the aviator himself.
"I am very pleased to announce that our own Dr. Rafii is the first physician-scientist in Weill Cornell history to be named an HHMI investigator at the Medical College," says Dr. Antonio Gotto Jr., dean of Weill Cornell. "As both clinician and researcher, Dr. Rafii has the unique ability to conduct translational research - to transform groundbreaking research from bench to bedside efficiently and successfully. His innovative work on stem cells and angiogenesis promises to make lasting impact on the treatment of cancer and vascular diseases."
As director of the Ansary Center for Stem Cell Therapeutics at Weill Cornell, Dr. Rafii pioneered the concept that tumors and regenerating or damaged organs rely on circulating stem cells to build new blood vessels. This discovery heralds the use of stem-cell therapy as prospective treatment of vascular insufficiencies, such as heart attack, and of blood and vascular disorders, such as cancer.
"I am truly honored to join the HHMI, which will give me the scientific freedom to further understanding of stem cell biology, as well as the means to develop and test innovative approaches to treat cancer and vascular disorders," said Dr. Rafii. "In addition, this award will bolster our collaborations with other scientists at Weill Cornell and elsewhere to explore new frontiers of investigation. I hope this award will advance our efforts to harness and exploit the therapeutic potential of fetal and embryonic stem cells for treatment of human malignancies, vascular diseases, and genetic disorders in the very near future."
Dr. Rafii received his bachelor's degree in chemistry from Cornell University and his medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He has been funded by multiple grants from the Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health. He is a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Tumor Microenvironment Study Section at the National Cancer Institute. He is also an American Cancer Society scholar and a translational researcher at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
A nonprofit medical research organization dedicated to the basic life sciences, HHMI was established in 1953 by the aviator-industrialist, subject of a recent film biopic, and is the largest privately funded education initiative in the United States. The Institute prizes intellectual daring and encourages autonomy in its investigators.
The HHMI investigators are drawn from 31 institutions nationwide, representing traditional biomedical research disciplines, as well as engineering, physics, chemistry, and computer science.
Photo by Clark Jones/AP, © HHMI.