Sarah Thayer, M.D., Ph.D., Merle M. Musselman Centennial Professor of Surgery and chief of surgical oncology at UNMC, humbly downplays her groundbreaking research on pancreatic cancer.
“There was some low-hanging fruit,” Dr. Thayer said.
But now, it seems, we are reaching higher.
Tony Hollingsworth, Ph.D., UNMC’s 2011 Scientist Laureate, has often said he investigates pancreatic cancer because so few others do. But with, among others, Dr. Hollingsworth, Surinder Batra, Ph.D., UNMC’s 2012 Scientist Laureate, and now the recent hiring of Dr. Thayer, an internationally recognized physician-scientist, UNMC has assembled a powerhouse team to fight the disease.
Medical center leadership has trumpeted the hiring of Dr. Thayer, who began May 1as associate director for clinical affairs and physician-in-chief for the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center.
“This is a prominent example that the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center will attract the brightest minds in cancer care and research who will look to take advantage of world-class infrastructure and to collaborate with what is already an outstanding team,” said UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D.
Dr. Thayer comes to UNMC following a stint as Austen Scholar in Academic Surgery and director of the pancreatic cancer biology lab at Harvard Medical School, where she practiced at its teaching hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital.
She has a $2 million pancreatic cancer research project funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute.
Said Bradley Britigan, M.D., dean of the UNMC College of Medicine and president of the medical center’s clinical enterprise: “She is what we call a ‘triple-threat,’ someone who excels in all three areas of academic medicine: education, research and clinical practice.”
Dr. Thayer joins UNMC just as the innovative, state-of-the-art $323 million Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center comes to life.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity to realize what the very best of cancer care can be,” Dr. Thayer said.
As for pancreatic cancer, Dr. Thayer said that its current statistics are stark, but work by UNMC and others is likely to bear fruit.
As funding and attention has turned to pancreatic cancer, she expects to see the kind of progress made when the same happened with other cancers.
In the meantime, she channels her frustration with current outcomes into developing breakthroughs in the lab and clinic.
Watch the building of the Fred & Pamela Buffet Cancer Center »