Laura Hutchins, a hematologist-oncologist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences who specializes in breast cancer, melanoma and brain cancer, has been appointed interim director for the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, effective immediately.
She succeeds Peter Emanuel, who recently resigned after leading the institute since 2007. A committee will be formed to conduct a national search for a permanent director.
Hutchins is a professor in the College of Medicine Division of Hematology/Oncology where she was division director from 1998 until September 2013. She also has served as director clinical research at the Cancer Institute since 1998 and has held the Virginia Clinton Kelley Endowed Chair for Clinical Breast Cancer Research since 2007.
She has been a co-investigator on numerous NIH grants including those focused on detection of circulating melanoma cells, and using nanotubes to detect and purge circulating cancer cells.
Her research includes collaborating with Thomas Kieber-Emmons, a fellow scientist to study a UAMS-designed vaccine to prevent the recurrence of breast cancer. That vaccine, now in a phase II clinical trial, is being used in women newly diagnosed with breast cancer to determine if the combination of the vaccine and standard chemotherapy improve the benefit of preoperative therapy.
Hutchins was appointed by the governor to the Arkansas Breast Cancer Research Program Oversight Committee from 2001-2004. From 2004-2012, she was appointed to serve on the state Breast Cancer Control Advisory Board, serving as chairman from 2007-2008.
