William E. Evans to Receive 3rd Annual Yaffe Award

William E. Evans, PharmD, Director and Chief Executive Officer of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, has been named the recipient of the Sumner J. Yaffe Lifetime Achievement Award in Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

After receiving his BSc and PharmD degrees from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), Dr Evans joined the faculty of St Jude Children ’s Research Hospital (SJCRH) in 1976. For 19 years he served as Chair of the Pharmaceutical Department at SJCRH where he developed a laboratory that has been the site of education and training for over 100 doctoral research fellows, graduate and undergraduate students from around the world. In 1987 he developed the UTHSC Center for Pediatric Pharmacokinetics and Therapeutics a State of Tennessee Center of Excellence and continues as co director.

Recently, Dr Evans was named Director and CEO of St Jude where he also serves as Director of the Clinical Pharmacokinetics Laboratory. Dr Evans has served as the chief academic officer for a faculty and staff of over 2500, with an annual research and education budget exceeding 150 million dollars. Dr. Evans is also the First Tennessee Bank Professor at the UTHSC Colleges of Pharmacy and Medicine.

His research interests have focused on the pharmacodynamics of medications used in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and on the role of pharmacogenomics in our understanding responses to antileukemic agents in children. Dr Evans research efforts have centered on gaining insight into the mechanisms for differences in the methotrexate’s antileukemic effects in children with ALL. Currently, he is investigating the molecular mechanisms of differences in methotrexate accumulation and the cytotoxic effects. He and colleagues use gene expression analysis of the activity of more than 9,600 genes in order to study the response to treatment of leukemia cells that are taken from children before and after their initial treatment for ALL. This research culminated in the identification of 124 genes whose changes in expression differed depending on which treatment the child received. The genes that altered their activity in response to chemotherapy included those involved in apoptosis mismatch repair the control of the cell cycle and the response of cells to the stress of chemotherapy.

Dr. Evans will receive the award and present at the 13th PPAG Annual Meeting in St. Petersburg, Florida on October 7, 2004 at 9:00AM. A reception will follow.