says Jeanne Pearlman, senior vice president for Program and Policy. “As a foundation, we’re interested in being the early money in a project.” The Foundation’s decision to endow research chairs for new fields’ luminaries has backed researcher’s drive to achieve life-saving breakthroughs, like Kienzle’s. The local support also buoys Hillman’s international reputation. The group headed by Dr. Patrick Moore, a Hillman virologist who holds one of the endowed chairs, has discovered two of the seven viruses that cause 20% of all cancers. “Together with our other faculty, we have the most expertise in cancer virology,” he says. “We’re definitely a leading center in the world.” Dr. Ferris agrees. “Pittsburgh has punched above its weight,” he says. “We have vision and tremendous community support.” Even though Pitt is among the top five U.S. institutions receiving NIH funding, “there’s tremendous competition,” Dr. Ferris says. Focused on immediate applications, the National Institutes of Health can’t fund highly experimental work. “We’ve made an intentional effort to provide discretionary funding that scientists can use to follow their instincts. That realization came eight or 10 years ago. Then we found The Pittsburgh Foundation — a great partner that gives us more bang for the buck. It’s a great marriage.” Since 2012, The Pittsburgh Foundation has endowed four research chairs at Hillman, including Moore’s. Dr. Adrian Lee, director of the Pitt/UPMC Institute for Precision Medicine, holds the chair in personalized medicine. Dr. Warren Shlomchik examines the events that lead to graft-versus-host disease following stem cell transplant in patients with leukemia and related blood cancers. He is the designate for the chair in cancer immunotherapy. In 2018, Hillman welcomed famed cancer virologist Dr. Shou-Jiang Gao, who holds the Foundation’s endowed chair in drug development for immunotherapy. Hillman is currently recruiting a scien- tist for a fifth Foundation-endowed chair: Personalized Cancer Therapy Investigator for Innovation and Approach, and Environment. “Personalized medicine is where the action is,” says Dr. Stanley Marks, chairman of UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. But he acknowledges the challenges ahead. “It’s one thing to identify a genetic mutation. It’s another to identify a drug that will work on it. There are certainly thousands of targets, but we've narrowed them down. Our goal is to make cancer a manageable disease people can live with.” Shari Kienzle has returned to her job as human relations director of a tech recruiting firm headquartered at North Side’s Nova Place. She is living joyfully in remission from her disease and sharing her story with other lymphoma patients. “My motto is: ‘Thank God for today.’ I live every day to the fullest that I can.” by Christine H. O’Toole Dr.Warren Shlomchik investigates the biology of transplanting blood stem cells from one person to another. These transplants are usually performed to treat blood cancers. Through his studies Dr. Shlomchik works to improve the safety and effectiveness of these therapies.