Microscopic view of cancer cells

Oliver Joins DCI from Huntsman Cancer Institute

Duke University School of Medicine continues its investment in science faculty recruitment and retention with the selection of four additional Duke Science and Technology Scholars. 

This year’s cohort is made up of scholars who are exploring innovations in lung cancer treatment, fat storage, and metabolism, aging, and biochemistry. 

“The scholars have accepted the challenge to address the most pressing global issues,” said Colin Duckett, Ph.D., vice dean of basic science at the Duke University School of Medicine. “Their deep scientific knowledge, cultivated through connections at Duke, will help move science forward.”  

Trudy G. Oliver, PhD, joins the Duke Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, after relocating her lab from the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. At Huntsman, she was the endowed chair in Cancer Research and associate professor in the Department of Oncological Sciences. Her research focuses on subtypes of lung cancer, specifically squamous and small-cell lung cancer. Her lab investigates the mechanisms of tumor initiation, progression, plasticity, and drug resistance to uncover vulnerabilities that may be targeted by therapeutics.   

“I completed my Ph.D. in the pharmacology and cancer biology department almost 20 years ago, and I loved my experience and training at Duke,” she said. “I was excited to return and join many wonderful friends and colleagues in this area, and to help give back to the program that launched my own career in science.”   

Learn More

This excerpt is from an article on the Duke University School of Medicine website. Read the full article to learn about other scholars who were recently recruited as Duke Science and Technology Scholars. 

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THE GRADUATE Monica Bodd, MD, MTS, at her MD Graduation with Associate Dean for Student Affairs Aimee Chung, MD, her advisory dean (left); her primary Duke Surgery mentor DCI head & neck surgical oncologist Dan Rocke, MD (top right) and clinic staff; and with her proud parents on match day (bottom right).

Lessons from Duke: Centering the Patient Experience & a Role for Theology

Monica Bodd thinks a lot about the patient experience and how to make it better — both through research and clinical practice. While earning her MD and her Masters of Theological Studies degrees at Duke, she learned from some of the best, including Thomas LeBlanc, MD, MA, MHS, Dan Rocke, MD, JD, and Walter Lee, MD, MHS, from Duke Cancer Institute, and from the Duke Divinity School, Warren Kinghorn MD, ThD, Sarah Barton OT, ThD,Susan Eastman, MDiv, PhD, and Kate Bowler, PhD. Patient experience research in oncology is an investigation of common issues faced by people with cancer, including symptom burden, quality of life, and psychological distress, as well as how patients understand their prognosis and make decisions about their treatment through the various stages of their disease. “The way I explain it to my friends or to my family, it’s about asking patients how they live and work through their diagnoses on a day-to-day basis, centering their perspective over the perspective of a medical record or a diagnosis or a doctor's words,” said Bodd. “There are validated and quantitative aspects to it, but it’s more about what we wouldn't necessarily capture with our big data and metrics… I believe it’s the redeeming hope for a lot of medicine.” As Bodd was leaving Duke to begin her residency in Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery at Stanford Medicine this past spring, she spoke with DCI about some of the unique projects she got to work on and co-lead as a medical student and theology student — and the wisdom and practices she’s carrying forward in her medical career from both disciplines.

Betty Tong speaking at a podium

An Extraordinary Woman in Cardiothoracic Surgery

Duke Cancer Institute member Betty Tong, MD, MHS, MSME, BME, has won the inaugural “Extraordinary Women in Cardiothoracic Surgery Award” established by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) and Women in Thoracic Surgery (WTS). The award celebrates those who have achieved excellence and innovation in clinical practice and who demonstrate integrity, leadership, mentorship, creativity, and advocacy on behalf of the specialty, patient population, or fellow surgeons and trainees. Tong, an active member of both WTS (where she serves as co-chair of membership) and the Association of Women Surgeons, is an associate professor in the tenure track of the Department of Surgery, Division of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, Section of General Thoracic Surgery. She's an accomplished clinical surgeon with a strong focus on complex thoracic oncology and minimally invasive thoracic surgery and has clinical expertise in lung and esophageal cancer surgery as well as mesothelioma. In addition to her own busy clinical practice at Duke, Tong operates one day each week at the Durham VA Medical Center with the residents on the General Thoracic Surgery service there. Tong has served on the Duke Institutional Review Board (IRB) for more than a decade and has more than 120 peer-reviewed publications to her name; about 40 of which were published in the last two years. “This tremendous honor recognizes the outstanding achievements of women thoracic surgeons in our specialty,” said Edward Chen, MD, FACS, FAHA, division chief, Cardiothoracic Surgery, in the Duke Department of Surgery. “We are truly blessed and privileged to have Dr. Tong on our faculty at Duke.” Tong was presented with the award at a celebratory breakfast held during the Jan. 21-23 Society of Thoracic Surgeons’ Annual Meeting in San Diego. Leah M. Backhus, MD, MPH (Stanford University) and Jennifer L. Ellis, MD, MBA (NYU Langone Health) also received the award.