UCLA’S CHARLES BRUNICARDI , M.D., JOINS THE BOARD
GLOBAL SCIENTISTS OFFICIALLY LAUNCH NON-PROFIT
(April 8, 2015 Miami, FL.) Former executive producer of ABC’s Good Morning America, Shelley Ross, has been named president of The Cure Alliance it was announced today by Dr. Camillo Ricordi, the group’s founding president and Director and Chief Academic Officer of the University of Miami Diabetes Research Institute and Cell Transplant Center.
“Shelley Ross brings creative innovation and a new energy to our efforts. 2015 will be an important year for The Cure Alliance as bold initiatives are under discussion in Congress and we believe we can finally tear down the many barriers we face moving potential cures from our labs to our patients. ”
Ross, an award-winning network television writer, producer, executive and author, is best known for her 17-year tenure at ABC News.
“I am humbled and proud to be working with this global group of elite scientists who are dedicated to curing the diseases which impact us all,” said Ross, adding, “I am especially happy to work alongside fellow board members, Drs. Ricordi and Brunicardi, who are at the forefront of scientific discovery and know first hand what tools could help the government keep pace with what we know can be an exciting new era in medicine.”
Dr. Charles Brunicardi joins the board of directors of The Cure Alliance as secretary. He is the UCLA Moss Foundation Professor of Gastrointestinal and Personalized Surgery and Chief of General Surgery at the UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center plus Vice Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA. He has written more than 270 publications and is editor of “Schwartz’s Principles of Surgery” now in its 10th edition. His current research focuses on translational genomic medicine and surgery for diabetes and pancreatic cancer.
Dr. Camillo Ricordi remains on the board as treasurer and editor-in-chief of CellR4, the official medical journal of The Cure Alliance. Acknowledged as one of the world’s leading scientists in diabetes cure-focused research and cell transplantation, Dr. Ricordi has authored over 700 scientific publications. He has been awarded 11 patents including the Ricordi Chamber which produced the first islet cell transplants. He is currently working on an artificial “biohub” which would amount to a cure for diabetes.
The new board will also unveil a new website www.thecurealliance.org with latest news plus an interactive page, Act Now, for supporters to contact individual senators and congressmen about The Cure Alliance priorities.
The Cure Alliance is an invitation-only non-profit group of leading scientists, researchers, medical doctors and innovators, plus those who support their efforts to end suffering by developing cures for chronic, debilitating and fatal diseases. Its #1 goal is to help accelerate potential cures from the laboratory to the bedside.