DONALD DURDEN, MD, PhD – an internationally acclaimed physician scientist known for his work on childhood cancer research and drug therapies - has been appointed the new Vice-Chair of Research in the Department of Pediatrics, UC San Diego. With over thirty years of leadership, innovation, and medical research, including 9 U.S. Patents and a successful pharmaceutical company, Durden brings a new dynamic to the Vice-Chair of Research position.

Durden joins the Department from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, where he was Professor of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology, and Scientific Director of Basic and Translational Research at the AFLAC Cancer Center & Blood Disorders Service at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University. Well-known as an expert in signal transduction pathways, Durden discovered the role of PI3K/PTEN, the main cell-signaling pathway for blood vessel growth, cell survival, programmed cell death, and cell proliferation. 

“I am extremely pleased that Dr. Durden has joined the Department,” shares Dr. Haddad, Chair of the Department of Pediatrics. “In this role, he will help build the basic and translational pediatric research.  We expect Dr. Durden to play a major role in our alliance with St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, enhancing translational research and drug trials for difficult-to-treat cancers and taking advantage of the many on-going genomics efforts here at UC San Diego.”

Coupling UC San Diego’s outstanding basic research scientists with the top-ranked clinical enterprise at Rady Children’s, Durden is excited to be at the nexus of the Department’s future in research.

“We’ve got the scientific clout,” Durden asserts. “Institutions like St. Jude’s need to see the power of our pediatrics research, and the connectivity with the research happening at Health Sciences. We must be the first ones they come to for their proof of concept, and for well thought-out clinical trials. We want them to know that some of the most incredible scientists in cancer, stem cell, drug therapeutic and pediatric research are all right here at UCSD.”

From physician scientists like Dr. Stephen Spector and Dr. William Roberts, to genetic and genomic experts like Dr. Al La Spada and Dr. Kelly Frazer, UCSD’s Department of Pediatrics holds extraordinary leadership in groundbreaking and relevant medical research. Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Dr. Spector’s research focus is on discovering novel ways of detecting, treating, and preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission. Dr. Roberts, Medical Director of Ambulatory Services and Children’s Specialists San Diego, is conducting several clinical research trials in the treatment of leukemia and child brain tumors. Dr. Al La Spada, Chief of the Division of Genetics, is internationally recognized for his studies on how neurons degenerate and why the degeneration is restricted to certain cell types in different diseases, specifically in Huntington’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Dr. Kelly Frazer, a newly-recruited faculty member, will focus on building the new Genomic Information Sciences Division in the Department. A genomics biotech entrepreneur herself, Dr. Frazer’s research aims at understanding a child’s genetic predisposition to disease, conducting research and analysis of patient data from Rady Children’s Hospital and the Moores UCSD Cancer Center. The Department has also recently recruited Dr. Jim Hagood, new Division Chief of the Respiratory Medicine Division, to build basic and translational research in lung fibrosis. These physician-scientists are to mention just a few of the many outstanding clinical and basic researchers at the UCSD-Rady Children’s campus.

“We want to be the place in the U.S. where Phase 1 Trials are delivered, where cutting edge research is applied directly into treatments, and where our clinical-research framework is robust and of the highest caliber,” envisions Durden. “Pediatrics is a clinical department. Everything we do is measured by how much benefit the population receives.”

As the line becomes blurred between bench and bedside, now more than ever before is the need for a wholistic approach to pediatrics research. No longer is research confined to the lab, or patient care confined to the bedside. Clinical physicians, fellows, and residents, are just as much part of evidence-based medicine, innovating research ideas, and carrying out research trials, as research experts are in investigating the causes and cures of diseases on a cellular level. With the emerging era of personalized medicine, acutely targeted drug therapies, and bi-translational research, Dr. Don Durden has just the right combination of experience to be the new Vice-Chair of Research.

“The one thing we all have in common is that we’re driven by science, and driven by compassion,” Durden expresses emphatically. When the Department’s pediatricians go to the clinic, and see a 3-year old completely paralyzed with a brain tumor, there is a burning desire to find a cure for that child.  They want to do something about it now!

 “But we cannot do it alone. We have to leverage the potential we have with other parts of UCSD Health Sciences and the La Jolla pharmaceutical community,” Durden iterates, pointing out the window towards Gennessee Avenue, home to several of the most renowned biotech companies. “I am a firm believer of the saying, ‘it takes a village to raise a child.’ We have to come together to make our vision a reality.”

WRITTEN BY: Shivani Singh, Sr. Writer, UCSD Department of Pediatrics s1singh@ucsd.edu

SCIENTIFIC CONTACT: Prof. Don Durden, MD, PhD, Vice-Chair of Research, UCSD Department of Pediatrics.  ddurden@ucsd.edu