Illinois Medicine

all major functions such as limb movements, sensation, control of swallowing, control of eye movement, etc., pass through this area. The back of the brain also includes the cerebellum, which is the balance center of the brain." Changes in technology, particularly magnetic resonance angiography software called NOVA that has been developed by Fady Charbel, MD, Res '93, head of neurological sur- gery, allow Amin-Hanjani and other researchers the opportunity to study areas that had been difficult to investigate before. Amin-Hanjani and other clinical researchers lead a team of six facilities in the five-year NIH study measuring blood flow and stroke risk. The others are Co- lumbia, UCLA, Washington University, Toronto Western and Mercy Hospital of Chicago. Multicenter research is exciting primarily for two reasons, she says. "It allows the research to be done in a broad population of subjects in different geographic areas and thus allows the results of the research to be more relevant and ultimately 'generalize-able' to patients not just at one's own center but on a more widespread level. It also allows the opportunity to collaborate with investigators at other centers who share the same clinical and research interests, which can enrich and improve the study." What Amin-Hanjani and her collaborators are doing is measuring blood flow to the back of the brain to determine which patients are at greatest risk of a stroke, enabling them to design an intervention accordingly. They received funding through the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the NIH. "It's not been looked at before, which is one of the reasons that NINDS felt it was important," she says. "Blockages there have a high morbid- ity and mortality risk." Yet Amin-Hanjani never loses focus on her clinical work. "The ability to actually take care of individual patients is what is most rewarding about clinical practice," she says. "As a physician, I see the areas where current knowledge is lacking and research is needed to help determine how to best manage my patients." HOW CAN T CELLS FIGHT TUMORS? For stroke victims, the stakes are high. So, too, are the battles that cancer patients face. Cancer researcher Peace has received NIH funding since 1985, dating back to his fellowship; his current work received $692,570 in NIH funds for 2010, part of a five-year, $3.47 million study. "There's tremendous energy being poured into the field," says Peace, who has been involved in an array of research, from stem cell transplantation to developing a vaccine for prostate cancer, through- out his career. He's especially fascinated by T cells, "the major soldier in the body," that he and others are using to fight tumors based on David Peace, MD RESEARCH AMOUNT: $3.47 million YEARS: 5 CO-INVESTIGATORS: Lawrence Feldman, MD, Craig Beam, PhD, Elizabeth Calhoun, PhD, Mark Kozloff, MD at Ingalls Memorial, Thomas Lad, MD at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital, Robert Molokie, MD at Jesse Brown Veterans Administration Hospital SYNOP SIS: The study seeks to understand and overcome factors that lead to disparity and poorer cancer care outcomes for patients from disadvantaged ethnic minorities, and to provide minorities with access to state-of-the-art cancer treatment. years of research that have begun to come to fruition in the clinic. "T cells are the key troops that lead the battle of an immune re- sponse," Peace says. "They help fend off viral and fungal infections and other invasive agents. They also have the ability to hunt down and de- stroy the body's own cells that go astray. We have in recent years finally gotten to successful clinical applications of theories and paradigms that were born several decades ago." In cancer treatment, Peace said, the advances that have been made since the 1980s are incredible. "We now have cancer therapies and supportive care that were unimaginable at that time," he says. "We're able, for example, to remedy certain infections quite easily that would have been lethal, without a doubt, to cancer patients back then." The opportunity to bring these advances to his own patients is the reason he does what he does, Peace says. "The bottom line is it's very gratifying to work with research solutions that affect the lives of real people. To be able to share that with my patients brings it home to me in a deeply profound, deeply gratifying fashion." ILLINOIS MEDICINE | 25 PHOTO: LLOYD DEGRANE

• Cover