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Richard Van Etten, MD, PhD, began his new role as director of the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, Irvine, on October 1. He succeeds the center's founding director, Frank Meyskens Jr., MD, and interim director, Sheldon Greenfield, MD.

Van Etten previously served as chief of the division of hematology/oncology and director of Tufts Cancer Center in Boston, MA. Internationally recognized for his research, he studies the molecular pathogenesis of leukemia, particularly dysregulated kinases such as the BCR-ABL, FGFR1, and JAK2 V617F kinases. In addition, he has an interest in oxidative stress and the role of the peroxiredoxin family of antioxidant enzymes in cell signaling.

After postgraduate training in internal medicine and hematology at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, he completed a fellowship at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, MA.

Norman Sharpless, MD, has been appointed director of the University of North Carolina (UNC) Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center in Chapel Hill, effective January 1. He will succeed H. Shelton Earp, MD.

A graduate of UNC and the UNC School of Medicine, Sharpless is currently Lineberger's deputy director, Wellcome Distinguished Professor of Cancer Research, and professor of medicine and genetics. A practicing medical oncologist, he studies the role of the INK4/ARF tumor suppressor locus in human cancer and aging. In addition, he codirects UNCSeq, a large clinical trial at UNC that uses next-generation sequencing of tumor DNA to define optimal chemotherapy regimens in patients with advanced cancer.

A recipient of numerous awards, Sharpless holds 12 patents and has authored more than 100 research papers.

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