Youcef M. Rustum

Dr. Rustum came to the United States at age 19 from Syria and obtained his PhD at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo in the Department of Biochemical Pharmacology. After graduation, Dr Rustum worked at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) in Buffalo, New York where he headed a Molecular Pharmacology laboratory with major emphasis on trans¬lational research. His work aimed at the development of new drugs and therapy of cancer. Dr. Rustum was appointed the Deputy Director of the Grace Cancer Drug Center at RPCI from 1988 to 1995. Since 1995, Dr Rustum held the position of Senior Vice President for Science Administration at RPCI. He has also served in various other senior administrative capacities, Chair of the Department of Cancer Biology and Associate Provost of SUNY/Buffalo, promoting inter¬action and collaboration between RPCI, SUNY at Buffalo, Hauptman Woodward Institute and other national and international Institutions. Dr. Rustum also established the first center for advanced scientific, clinical and administrative training of foreign graduates at RPCI and other centers in the USA During his career, Dr. Rustum trained over 300 scientists and clinician scientists from Europe, Asia, Middle East, Africa and the United States. His laboratory played a major role in the preclinical and clinical development of several new drugs for solid tumor malignancies such as Xeloda, irinotecan, oxaliplatin and celecoxib as well as the use of selenium as selective modulation of response to anticancer drugs. Under his leadership and in collaboration with clinical staff at RPCI, the so-called Roswell Park regime of 5¬-flourouracil/leucovorin became the new standard of care world wide for the treatment of patients with advanced colorectal cancer. Based on data generated in Dr. Rustum’s laboratory demonstrating synergistic interaction between selenium and anticancer drugs, a mechanism-based drug combination is under clinical development and evaluation in cancer patients. In addition, Dr. Rustum served on many review boards, both academic and pharmaceutical developing strategic plan for drug and therapy development. He led cooperation efforts for revamping of the administrative, clinical and scientific structures of RPCI to meet the 21 century requirement for outstanding comprehensive cancer center. After his retirement from his administrative position, Dr. Rustum continues to be involved in cancer translational research and molecular pharmacology as an Emeritus Professor at RPCI. He is continuously working on building strong and effective collaborative research and clinical efforts with other centers in the Arab world and elsewhere. He served as advisor to a number of Universities and Cancer Centers inside and outside the United States, include the Scientific Board of Directors of the King Hussein Cancer Center and as Board Member of the King Hussein Cancer Biotechnology Institute in Amman, Jordan. Additionally, Dr. Rustum also served a number of scientific journal board member, such as a member of the Editorial Academy of the International Journal of Oncology. In honor of Rustum family and his contributions to science, a Rustum Family Endowed Fund was established to support young physician scientists who lead translation cancer research effort at RPCI and to train low income students at RPCI.