The Eppley Cancer Center has been chosen as the recipient of the 2003
distribution of the Shrike-Hlavac Memorial Trust. Money from the trust
will go toward seed money for innovative research ideas.
These funds are essential in obtaining larger grants from such national
funding agencies as the National Cancer Institute, said Ken Cowan, M.D.,
Ph.D., director of the Eppley Cancer Center. We are certainly very appreciative
of all of the support we have received from the trust, as these funds are
extremely important in our quest to find cures to deadly cancer diseases.
UNMC researchers, via the NU Foundation, have received gifts from the
trust since 2001. The Shrike-Hlavac Memorial Trust has gifted more than
$100,000 to UNMC, and as such, was placed on the Wall of Honor, near the
second-floor escalators in the Durham Outpatient Center.
The Shrike-Hlavac Memorial Trust was created by Maxwell Eugene Shrike,
a former resident of Stromsburg, Neb. Shrike was a career Air Force veteran
who used his savings to create the trust for the express purpose of providing
funding to support research to cure heart disease, cancer and leukemia.
His mothers maiden name was Hlavac, hence the name of the trust. Shrike
passed away in 1995. Pursuant to Mr. Shrikes wishes, Cornerstone Bank,
which has served Central Nebraska for over 100 years, succeeded him as
trustee.
The cancer and heart research being done by the Eppley Cancer Center
and the University of Nebraska Medical Center serves as a living testimony
to Mr. Shrike, said Richard McDougall, Vice President & Manager of
the Cornerstone Trust Division. Cornerstone is honored to serve
as Trustee for the Shrike-Hlvac Memorial Trust and is confident that the
pioneering work being done by Dr. Cowan and Dr. Zucker is the type of research
Mr. Shrike intended for the trust to fund.
Irving Zucker, Ph.D., the Theodore F. Hubbard, M.D., Professor of cardiovascular
research and the chairman of the department of physiology and biophysics
at UNMC, said that money from the trust has assisted his research in a
couple of areas. One example of the research projects in Dr. Zuckers department
which are supported, in part, by the Shrike-Hlvac Trust, involves heart
arrhythmia, in which researchers are studying the malfunction of protein
channels across cell membranes. Another project involves studying the effects
of exercise on individuals with heart damage. After heart failure
is simulated in rabbits, researchers have found that consistent exercise
has a positive effect. The mechanism involves an enzyme found in the brain
that controls nerve activity to the heart and blood vessels.