The "Louise Thomas Endowed Chair in Pediatric Cancer Research"

The "Louised Thomas Endowed Chair in Pediatric Cancer Research" was named after Louise Thomas, a passionate advocate of children's health and a driving force behind the University of Arizona Steele Children's Research Center since its inception. After the painful experience of losing their son, Michael, to cancer, Louise and her husband, Al, became advocates for the importance of medical research to find new treatments for childhood diseases.

In 2005, Emmanuel Katsanis, MD, was appointed the Louise Thomas Chair in Pediatric Cancer Research. Dr. Katsanis is a leader in immunotherapy and leads a team of investigators devoted to finding ways to stimulate a patient's own immune system to fight cancer.

"Essentially, we are developing a therapeutic vaccine that would be administered to the cancer patient after their successful chemotherapy treatment," explains Dr. Katsanis. "This vaccine would boost the patient's immune system, thus warding off any remaining cancer cells and reducing the possibility of the cancer returning."

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