Visiting the Jason Sicklick Lab

May 23rd – Moore Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego – California

8:00 AM

Today, I had a 3-hour meeting/lab tour of the Jason Sicklick lab at the Moore Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego. It’s about an hour from where I’m staying in Temecula, but it was a nice ride in. A little traffic and some fog, but no significant delays.

The campus is huge, with lots of new and very modern looking buildings. Dr. Sicklick met me near the lobby and escorted me to a conference room where I met his team. I had met a few of his staff members before, but it was my first time meeting most of them.

I was treated to a series of presentations outlining the work the lab is doing. Most of this work is not yet published, so I can’t get into the details! But l was very, very impressed by the scope and depth of their work. I think I can say in a general sense that they are doing quite a bit of work on SDH-deficient GIST and are making progress there. They also presented two other areas that are on my list of “top things needed in GIST”. These include better risk criteria and tackling the issue of persistence in 1st line treatment. In other words, why don’t all GIST cells die when treated with imatinib. I was impressed with both projects. I also shared some Life Raft Group registry data with the team.

Finally, I got a personal tour of the lab from Dr. Sicklick. Let’s just say that I was quite impressed.

Altogether, a great day! Thanks Jason and thanks to all of your laboratory members!!

Left to Right

Adrian Sanchez-Fernandez, PhD
Mani Murugesan PhD
Leily Gordon
Chih-Min (Amy) Tang, PhD
Terence Doherty, (Screen on left)
Tannaz Ranjbarian, MD
Jerry Call, (LRG)
Debra Melikian, (Screen on right)
Jason Sicklick, MD, FACS
Shashwath Malli, PhD
Mark Antkowiak, MD
Diwakar Guragain, PhD