Bethlehem, Pa., April 7, 2016— Moravian College will welcome alumnus Dr. Frank Rauscher III ’79, the deputy director of The Wistar Institute Cancer Center, to discuss “Renewing the War on Cancer in the Post Genomic and Personalized Medicine Era,” on Thursday, April 14 at 7:00 p.m. in Dana Lecture Hall. The talk will be thought-provoking in light of the new White House Initiative "National Cancer Moonshot." Rauscher will share what progress has been made with this research and what remaining challenges face the biomedical community. The talk is open to the public and admission is free of charge

“Even after the war on cancer, there are still so many unanswered questions, and we’re really just scratching the surface in applying the human genome information to cancer therapeutics,” says Rauscher. “Every day I walk in the lab, I have a new idea for how to attack this problem.”

Rauscher is currently working with other scientists at Wistar to learn how breast cancer cells break away and spread to other parts of the body. Learning about the genes that cause these cancer cells to break away and spread can help develop better diagnostic tools and lead to more effective treatments. In March, Wistar was awarded $1.1 million to create the The Jayne Koskinas Ted Giovanis Breast Cancer Research Consortium. Dr. Rauscher and his colleagues Dr. Rugang Zhang and Dr. José R. Conejo-Garcia are part of a multidisciplinary team that is collaborating to look at these cancer cells from different angles.

President Richard Nixon designated Rauscher’s father, Frank J. Rauscher Jr.,a 1953 alumnus of Moravian College, in 1971 as the first general in the “War on Cancer.” As one of five children, Rauscher III was greatly influenced by the world of cancer and eventually became a professor of molecular genetics at the University of Pennsylvania and deputy director of the prestigious Wistar Institute.

“Rauscher will discuss how major advances in the life sciences genomics are aiding cancer researchers,” said Diane Husic, dean of the School of Natural and Health Sciences. “Frank will also include some perspectives from the work his father as the Director of the "War on Cancer" and the challenges that still remain."

During his 2016 State of the Union Address, President Obama called on Vice President Biden to lead a new, national “Moonshot” initiative to eliminate cancer.  The White House announced a $1 billion initiative to jumpstart this work. More than 1.6 million new cases of cancer will be diagnosed and cancer will kill an estimated 600,000 Americans in 2016. 

The National Cancer Moonshot will work to accelerate research efforts and break down barriers to promote progress. The initiative aims to bring about a decade’s worth of advances in five years, making more therapies available to more patients, while also improving our ability to prevent cancer and detect it at an early stage.

“Moravian College is excited to have one of our own alumni, an authority on cancer research, provide our campus community with a greater understanding of the work that is being done for the National Cancer Moonshot,” said Julia Gasdaska, director of major gifts. 

The event is sponsored by the School of Natural and Health Sciences, the Department of Institutional Advancement, The Department of Biological Sciences, Beta Beta Beta, the campus chapter of the National Biological Honor Society. 

Moravian College encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. Anyone who anticipates needing any type of accommodation or who has questions about the physical access provided should contact Michael Wilson at 610-861-1354 or wilsonm@moravian.edu prior to visiting Moravian College.

Moravian College is a private coeducational liberal arts college, offering undergraduate and graduate degrees, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For over 274 years, the Moravian College degree has been based on a liberal arts curriculum where literature, history, cultural values and global issues, ethics, and aesthetic expression and the social sciences are infused with multidisciplinary perspectives. Visit www.moravian.edu to learn more about how the Moravian College liberal arts curriculum prepares its students for life-long success.