Dean's Distinguished Alumnus 2011

I am very pleased to carry out one of our traditions for Alumni Weekend – presentation of the Dean's Distinguished Alumnus Award. The award was established in 1973 to recognize outstanding graduates who have made major contributions to the health of all people in areas such as patient care, research, health services administration and leadership.

As I'm sure you know, one of the top priorities for the nation today in health care and the biomedical sciences is what's referred to as translational research. In recent years, there has been a greater focus on multidisciplinary collaboration and other efforts to help ensure that we move scientific discoveries from the laboratory to the patient's bedside as quickly as possible. … That's much easier said than done.

But Dr. Susan Bates, this year's recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award, has dedicated her career to moving promising new cancer therapies from the laboratory to the patient. Her work has focused on overcoming drug resistance and making existing cancer drugs work better.

Dr. Bates has been with the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, for the past 30 years. But Arkansas, which she visits frequently, remains close to her heart.

Dr. Bates attended high school in Arkansas and then the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. She graduated from the UAMS College of Medicine in 1978 and stayed here for an internship and residency in Internal Medicine. She continued her training as a Senior Resident in Internal Medicine at Georgetown University, before joining the NCI in 1981. She held a number of clinical and research fellowships and then moved up through the ranks of NCI and the Public Health Service until 1995, when she was appointed to her current post as Head of the Molecular Therapeutics Section in the Medical Oncology Branch.

Dr. Bates' team of researchers and clinicians has made remarkable progress in many areas, but there are two dates on her calendar that have truly earned gold stars: November 5, 2009, and June 16, 2011. Those are the dates that the FDA approved the use of the drug romidepsin for the treatment of two forms of devastating T-cell lymphomas. The first approval was for its use in patients with Cutaneous T-cell Lymphoma. CTCL is a disfiguring, debilitating and ultimately life-threatening disease. The second FDA approval, this summer, was for use of the drug in Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma, a disease with a median life expectancy of less than two years from diagnosis. For thousands of patients with aggressive forms of these lymphomas, Dr. Bates' work has offered new hope.

Her role was instrumental and truly bench-to-bedside. First, Dr. Bates' laboratory initiated the mechanism of action studies for the drug over a decade ago, fleshing out the underlying workings of a new class of anti-cancer compounds. Her collaborative work and leadership continued through all phases of clinical trials, licensing and the FDA approval process. She designed and led an international clinical study involving over 20 research centers, including UAMS. (And I'll note here that our own Dr. Laura Hutchins nominated Dr. Bates for the Dean's Distinguished Alumnus Award. So thank you, Dr. Hutchins.)

Dr. Bates and her team have received many commendations for their work, including both the NIH and NCI Directors Awards in 2010. We are very proud to have her as an alumna in the College of Medicine.