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Richard Pazdur, MD, director of the FDA's Office of Hematology and Oncology Products, within the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, was named acting director of the agency's new Oncology Center of Excellence. The center will review and regulate all cancer-related products, including drugs, devices, and biologics, consolidating multiple offices and providing a more integrated approach to their development.

Prior to joining the FDA in 1999, Pazdur was a professor of medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and served as assistant vice president for academic affairs, and as associate director of clinical trials administration and director of educational programs, both in the Division of Medicine.

Pazdur's research interests have included clinical trial design and the development of anticancer agents for the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer, for which he performed numerous phase I, II, and III trials. He has published more than 300 articles, book chapters, and abstracts.

Hudson H. Freeze, PhD, a professor of glycobiology and director of the Human Genetics Program at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in La Jolla, CA, began a 1-year term as president of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology in July.

Freeze's research focuses on identifying and understanding human genetic disorders, mainly rare congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDG), the process of adding sugar chains to proteins and lipids. He has played a role in the discovery of 18 of the more than 110 CDGs identified to date.

Freeze is a past president of the Society for Glycobiology.

For more news on cancer research, visit Cancer Discovery online at http://cancerdiscovery.aacrjournals.org/content/early/by/section.