The Team

The NFPTR Team is composed of a talented group of researchers and clinicians who bring with them enthusiasm and a unique approach to studying pancreatic tumors and their precursors. Here is the team:

Dr. Alison P. Klein is the director of the registry. Her main focus is the study of the epidemiology of pancreatic cancer including identifying individuals most at risk of developing pancreatic cancer as well as understanding the other types of cancer that may run in families together with pancreatic cancer.

Emily Palmisano is the coordinator of the NFPTR. Ms. Palmisano graduated from St. Mary's College in Maryland in 2005 with a Bachelors of Arts in Biology. Ms. Palmisano joined the NFPTR Team in July of 2005 and has been an excellent fit for the registry.

Marian Raben is a Physician's Assistant who joined the team in August 2005 to help educate patients regarding the various ongoing research studies in the field of pancreatic cancer. Ms. Raben trained as a Physician's Assistant at St. Louis University and received her Masters in Health Sciences from Towson University.

Dr. Ralph Hruban is the director of GI/Liver Pathology at Johns Hopkins. His research focuses on the precursor lesions that give rise to invasive pancreatic cancer. Just as colon polyps can give rise to colon cancer, Dr. Hruban has shown that small precursor lesions in the pancreas can give rise to pancreatic cancer.

Dr. Anirban Maitra is an Assistant Professor of Pathology. His research focuses on the application of cutting-edge technologies to the study of pancreatic cancer. Dr. Maitra helped design and develop the first gene chip to sequence the mitochondrial genome, and more recently he has been studying the role of the "hedgehog" pathway in pancreatic cancer.

Dr. Christine Iacobuzio-Donahue is an Assistant Professor of Pathology. Dr. Iacobuzio-Donahue's research interests include understanding why pancreatic cancer metastasizes (spreads) to other organs. To help her further our understanding of metastatic pancreatic cancer she initiated the Gastrointestinal Cancer Rapid Medical Donation Program.

Dr. Michael Goggins is an Associate Professor of Pathology and Medicine. His main research focus includes improving the early detection of pancreatic cancer. To this end, he is working to identify new molecular markers for the early detection of pancreatic cancer.

Dr. Marcia Canto is an Associate Professor of Medicine. Dr. Canto's efforts focus on screening individuals that have been shown to have a high risk of developing pancreatic cancer using Endoscopic Ultrasound (EUS).

Dr. Scott Kern is a Professor of Pathology and Oncology. He is interested in fundamental gene discovery and in translating these gene discoveries to better patient care. For example, his current interests include treating pancreatic cancers that arose in patients with BRCA2 gene mutations with a chemotherapeutic agent (mitomycin C) that specifically targets changes caused by BRCA2 gene mutations.

Dr. Jim Eshleman is an Associate Professor of Pathology. He develops new technologies that can be used to detect early pancreatic cancer. For example, Dr. Eshleman developed the LigAmp technology and LigAmp is now being evaluated as an early detection test for pancreatic cancer.

Dr. Daniel Laheru is an Assistant professor of Oncology. His is very active in the clinical treatment of patients with pancreatic cancer and he also conducts research on new immunological methods (vaccines) to treat pancreatic cancer.

Dr. Elizabeth Jaffee is a Professor of Oncology. She has developed a vaccine for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. This vaccine is made from the cancer cells themselves.

Jennifer Axilbund is the genetic counselor who works closely with the National Familial Pancreas Tumor Registry. She not only counsels individuals with a strong family history of pancreatic cancer, but she is also doing research on how best to counsel these patients.

Dr. Constance Griffin is an Associate Professor of Pathology. Dr. Griffin studies pancreatic cancer at the chromosome level using technologies such as karyotyping.

Dr. Kurtis Campbell is an Associate Professor of Surgery. He has been selected to provide continued leadership to the surgical efforts against pancreatic cancer at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Dr. John Cameron is a Professor of Surgery and an expert in the field of Pancreatic Cancer surgery. Dr. Cameron has probably performed more Whipple surgeries (removal of the head of the pancreas) than any other surgeon in the world.

Dr. Steven Leach is a Professor of Pathology. Dr. Leach uses zebra fish models to study the developmental biology of the pancreas and to determine which genes are important for the development of pancreatic cancer.