UW News

June 3, 2004

Nora Disis becomes new director for General Clinical Research Center

Dr. Mary “Nora” Disis, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Medical Oncology, has been named the new director of the UW General Clinical Research Center (GCRC). Disis succeeds Dr. John Brunzell, professor of medicine and longtime GCRC director.

The UW GCRC is one of 78 in the nation, all funded by the National Center for Research Resources, one of the National Institutes of Health.

Disis, also an associate member of the Clinical Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, directs the UW Tumor Vacccine Group. That group is developing immune-based therapies for cancer through both pre-clinical research and clinical trials.

Disis earned her medical degree from the University of Nebraska, Omaha, and completed her residency at the University of Illinois, Chicago, before coming to the UW in 1990 for a fellowship in oncology. She researches vaccines for breast and ovarian cancers, as well as novel immunologic therapies for those cancers.

As director of the GCRC, she hopes to help the center become more of a conduit between basic science researchers and clinical researchers, and to use the center’s resources to help scientists in any phase of research, from an unfunded idea to a clinical trial. With more clinical research going on at UW Medicine affiliates, Disis also hopes to increase the amount of assistance that GCRC staff provide to off-site researchers at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, the VA Puget Sound Health Care System, and other locations.

Brunzell, a member of the Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition, has served as director of the GCRC for the last eight years. He oversaw creation of the GCRC’s Cell and Gene Therapy unit, which is aimed at developing novel cell and gene therapy products for patients.