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São Paulo Branch — New Director and Now New Host Institution

Major changes are afoot at the LICR Sao Paulo Branch. The Branch was established in 1983, at the Hospital do Cancer, with Dr. Ricardo R. Brentani as the founding Branch Director. The Branch is entering an exciting next phase with its new Director, Dr. Luisa Villa (appointed in July), and now a new host institution, the Oswaldo Cruz Hospital.

As a change in Branch Director occurs, the Scientific Directorate is assessing the environment at each Branch/Center as part of its commitment to ensuring the host institution offers the best opportunities for the staff and research. Competing requirements at the São Paulo Branch’s current host institution, the Hospital do Cancer, dictated that the LICR reduce the amount of space that it would continue to occupy and relocate some laboratories. These changes would have considerably disrupted the staff’s ability to interact and conduct their research.

Four universities/hospitals made offers to be the Branch’s new host, and Dr. Villa worked with the Scientific Directorate and Dr. Ellen Puré (Director, Office of Academic Review) to assess the relative advantages of each prospective host institution in Brazil. The final choice was the ‘Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz’ (HAOC, or ‘Oswaldo Cruz Hospital), which is also in the city of São Paulo. HAOC, which is centrally located in São Paulo, is a not-for profit Hospital with 220 beds for in-patient care, and performs approximately 1,000 surgeries each month. The medical staff includes many of the Brazilian leaders in different oncology specialties, who are very keen to collaborate with the São Paulo Branch for the development of basic and applied cancer research in Brazil and worldwide.

According to Dr. Andy Simpson (LICR’s Executive Director for Programs & Operations), the HAOC deal offered new, larger, customized and contiguous laboratories. However, the new laboratories, and a new animal facility, were not the only draw-cards. “The Oswaldo Cruz offers an excellent environment, with the surgical and clinical staff having a real enthusiasm to work with the LICR investigators in the Branch. Also, the Ludwig Institute will actually be spear-heading the hospital’s newly-formed cancer research efforts, which will give our Branch staff terrific opportunities to take leadership roles in new research initiatives.”

The groups of Drs. Luisa Villa, Anamaria Camargo, Sandro De Souza and Vilma Martins, and the administrative team led by Branch Administrator, Mr. Paulo Campos, will constitute the ‘new’ São Paulo Branch. Dr. Luiz Reis and his group will stay at the Hospital do Cancer. Although Dr. Reis is officially leaving LICR, he will continue to work with our investigators and act as a liaison with the Hospital for access to the ORESTES clones from the combined LICR/FAPESP (State of São Paulo) Human Cancer Genome Project and the pedigreed tumor bank compiled jointly by the Branch and the Hospital.

Dr. Villa is enthusiastic about the move, which is scheduled to be completed in 2007. “Being at the Oswaldo Cruz Hospital will really help us to build even further on the great strengths of our research groups, with some excellent opportunities for new collaborations. Of course, we still have a very good relationship with the Hospital do Cancer. The Hospital recognizes the Institute for bringing internationally recognized cancer research to its doors, and they are very happy that our collaborations will be continuing. This is really a wonderful time for the Ludwig Institute in Brazil. The Administration offices and Bioinformatics group moved to the HAOC in early December, a rapid move that caused almost no disruption to the Branch activities. We were heartily welcomed. I can foresee a brilliant future for the Branch in its new location.”

“Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz (HAOC) is a non-profit institution recognized as having one of the best facilities and medical staff for cancer treatment in São Paulo. Because we consider science progress crucial for the gradual improvement of medical services, we have defined the development of teaching and research activities in HAOC as an important part of our strategy. 

In this scenario, we think that a partnership with a renowned international research organization, such as LICR, can help us to reach our goals. We believe that this initiative will approach two institutions with similar intentions and beliefs concerning cancer research, allowing the development of many shared projects. We are excited not only with LICR´s expertise and history in cancer research but also with LICR’s positive posture towards new studies and challenges.

At last, we have no doubts about the success of this partnership and truly hope the synergy created between HAOC and LICR can benefit both institutions and contribute to raise the level of cancer research in the world.”

Dr. José Henrique do Prado Fay
Executive Director, Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz

Postal and Visiting Address

Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research
Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz
Rua João Julião, 245 - 1st Floor - Paraiso
São Paulo, SP - 01323-903
Brazil

Telephone

Reception: +55 11 3549 0461          
Fax: +55 11 3284 5311
Director’s Assistant, Ms. Stella Leme Hering: +55 11 3549 0467

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