Chapter 01: Coming to MD Anderson for Resources to Support a Vision
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Description
Dr. Sawaya tells the story of how was recruited by Dr. Charles LeMaistre to come to MD Anderson in 1990. He begins by explaining why the decision was made in the late eighties to turn the Section of Neurosurgery into a department and create a Brain Tumor Center. He recalls his first visit to MD Anderson. He also speaks about the possibilities the institution offered for the future –and his vision for a comprehensive neuro-surgery department-- because of resources and institutional support to build a brain center (in stark contrast to the limitations at the University of Cincinnati Medical College, where he was on the faculty until 1990). The interviewer comments that Dr. Frederick Becker [Oral History Interview], Vice President of Research, was quoted as saying that the creation of a comprehensive brain and spine center was a priority for the nineties. Dr. Sawaya also recalls that the NIH had declared the 90s to be the “decade of the brain.”
Identifier
SawayaR_01_20130604_C01
Publication Date
6-4-2013
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Topics Covered
The Interview Subject's Story - Joining MD Anderson/Coming to TexasJoining MD Anderson; Professional Path; Building/Transforming the Institution; Multi-disciplinary Approaches; Growth and/or Change; Understanding Cancer, the History of Science, Cancer Research; The History of Health Care, Patient Care; MD Anderson History
Transcript
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
I'm Tacey Ann Rosolowski interviewing Dr. William C. Satterfield at the Michale E. Keeling Center for Comparative Medicine and Research, located in Bastrop, Texas. The Keeling Center is part of the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center. This interview is being conducted for the Making Cancer History Voices oral history project run by the Historical Resources Center at MD Anderson. Dr. Satterfield joined MD Anderson in 1983. He is a professor in the Department of Veterinary Sciences, and since 1986 he has held the position of chief of Livestock and Land Management. Is that correct? William C. Satterfield, DVM Correct.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay. In the Department of Veterinary Sciences, he's also attending veterinarian in that department and has served as Chief of the Chimpanzee Biomedical Research Resource. William C. Satterfield, DVM Correct.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay. This interview is taking place in Dr. Satterfield's office at the Keeling Center in Bastrop, and this is the first of two planned interview sessions. Today is July 24, and the time is just a couple of minutes after 2:00. Thank you, Dr. Satterfield, for taking the time to do this. William C. Satterfield, DVM Thank you, Tacey. It's wonderful to have you here.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Well, thanks. It's great to see another part of Texas, since I'm relatively new here. I wanted to start out with a few general questions just to get a sense of what the Keeling Center is about and what your mission is here. So I wanted to ask you, what is the role that the Michale Keeling Center serves for MD Anderson and also for other institutions, because I understand that there are a variety of connections? William C. Satterfield, DVM The Keeling has historically served as a resource for MD Anderson specifically, as well as other medical institutions within the medical center and other UT [University of Texas] components. There have been investigators from all of these components that have access to our resource over the years at one time or another. Of course, my primary affiliation has been with physician researchers or physician scientists at MD Anderson as well as with the National Institute of Health, where I worked for twenty-five years with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases with an investigator by the name of Robert Purcell, who was one of the scientists—as a physician scientist—that helped discover the hepatitis B vaccine. This has been pretty critical to my development here as well as the center because we received innumerable amount of support from NIH through that NIAID Laboratory of Infectious Disease, Hepatitis Section over the last quarter century. They've actually provided us with the resources, both in terms of facilities and scientific support, that we would not have received in any other way.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
You mentioned that the Keeling Center provides resources to these other institutions and MD Anderson, of course. Exactly what do you mean by "resources?" William C. Satterfield, DVM Our resources primarily are in terms of our animal models and our ability to use these animal models and to develop translational things that would benefit cancer patients and other people and other types of medical issues that would solve advanced medicine for human beings. The models range from mice through chimpanzees and large animal models. We have been a source of medical expertise, surgical expertise, and more recently, compliance with FDA expertise to translate basic science into things that can actually go into patients and help, either in terms of pain amelioration or pain modification or other types of—. More recently, I think the so-called "fat zapper" that one of the—in the Department of—well, let's see. I'll have to look in cancer medicine. It was in that Cancer Medicine Division. That product has gone through development in both rodents and primates here, and the FDA has given it preliminary approval for clinical trials in humans.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Would you call the Keeling Center a unique institution? William C. Satterfield, DVM That's a great question, and I would say that it is probably an extremely unique facility. A lot of hospital-related or institutional-related animal facilities will say that they're unique, but I believe that we have an opportunity, as veterinarians and basic scientists here in Bastrop, in this MD Anderson satellite facility in Bastrop, to advance science in ways that no other facility has the capabilities of doing because of our—we're not just doing service. We're actually working with basic scientists. For example, I worked with the Department of Neurosurgery for a number of years to develop a method of treating neuropathic pain in cancer patients, and the physician who I worked with was a neurosurgeon, Sam Hassenbusch PhD, MD. He and I worked out a model over about a month's time, and without having him come down here and be here physically, I was able to conduct a lot of his research over the next three years remotely, with him being in Houston and us being here in the sheep model, since sheep cannot be used in the medical center for some zoonotic reasons. They won't allow them to be taken there.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
What was that word, zoo—? William C. Satterfield, DVM Zoonotic.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Zoonotic. William C. Satterfield, DVM Z-O-O-N-O-T-I-C. Sheep have a pathogen called Coxiella burnetii. It's also known as "Q fever." It's interesting in that there's no vaccine for it. There's really not a good test for it, but if you're immunosuppressed, it can be highly infective, and it can be fatal, so they don't want that particular animal anywhere around cancer patients. So we do all that work here, which is fine. It's a great model. It's a great substitute for dogs. We don't have to use dogs. We can use the sheep, and actually, the sheep are a better model than the dog.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Oh, really? William C. Satterfield, DVM So it works out great.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Why are the sheep a better model than the dogs? William C. Satterfield, DVM They're not as expensive. We don't have to do all the socialization stuff that's required for dogs. They can be housed indoors or outdoors. Dogs, [don’t] really do that very well within a research setting. [Sheep] don't chew on their surgeries. They don't lick [their surgeries]. There are a lot of other things. We don't have to walk [sheep]. They're just great to work with, and as far as working with them surgically, they're just— I think they're one of the best models that I've ever worked with.
Recommended Citation
Sawaya, Raymond MD and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 01: Coming to MD Anderson for Resources to Support a Vision" (2013). Interview Chapters. 1537.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/1537
Conditions Governing Access
Open
