December 5, 2003

From: Fred Sanfilippo, MD, PhD
Senior Vice President for Health Sciences
Dean, College of Medicine and Public Health

I am delighted to report to you that The Ohio State University Board of Trustees today approved the establishment of a Department of Neurological Surgery within the College of Medicine and Public Health, and the appointment of E. Antonio "Nino" Chiocca, MD, PhD, as chair of the new department.

The establishment of the Department of Neurological Surgery makes OSUMC consistent with many other top academic medical centers. It will positively influence disciplines ranging from anesthesiology to rehabilitation, and the resulting multidisciplinary research will increase partnership opportunities with industry to convert research discoveries into new therapeutics and technologies.

When he joins the Medical Center in March, Dr. Chiocca will hold the Dardinger Family Endowed Chair in Oncological Neurosurgery. His appointment will strengthen our clinical, research and educational missions in the growing subspecialty of neurological surgery, as well as our emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration.

Currently associate professor of neurosurgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School , Dr. Chiocca is an outstanding, energetic physician-scientist who is nationally recognized as a brain tumor specialist and leading investigator in the use of gene therapies for brain tumors and other central nervous system disorders.

His research interests include engineering more efficient "tumor-killing" genes and defining more selective viruses that could be used to deliver therapeutics directly to tumors. He is principal investigator on more than a dozen research projects on a variety of brain tumor therapies, many of them funded by the National Institutes of Health, has authored or co-authored more than 100 articles and book chapters, and holds three patents, with four others pending. Dr. Chiocca will bring with him both grants and research faculty, and will position the Medical Center to attract additional external research support. In addition, we expect the new department to grow quickly with the recruitment of additional specialists in other elements of the discipline, including trauma, movement disorders, spine surgery and vascular disorders. The bolstered staffing of the department and high-caliber research will translate into an enhanced educational environment for medical students, more clinical training opportunities for students and residents, and more patients seeking treatment at OSU Medical Center for a wider range of disorders and injuries.

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