NCI DCT CLINICAL ONCOLOGY PROGRAM WILL BE HEADED BY GREGORY CURT

NCI DCT CLINICAL ONCOLOGY PROGRAM WILL BE HEADED BY GREGORY CURT, who will be returning to the National Cancer Institute after a year at Brown University. Curt had left his position as deputy director of the Division of Cancer Treatment (DCT) last July to head Brown University's residency program. He will return to NCI in July to assume NCI Director Samuel Broder's previous position as chief of DCT's Clinical Oncology Program.

While Curt is returning, NCI is losing several senior scientists from its AIDS lab and other officials. NCI's Tumor Cell Biology Laboratory is losing Mika Popovic and Suzanne Gartner, who are joining the Primate Research Institute at New Mexico State University, and Flossie Wong-Staal, who is moving to the University of Southern California.

Popovic has been with the Tumor Cell Biology Lab, which is headed by Robert Gallo, since January 1980. He was one of the original authors of the first paper describing HIV. Gartner, a senior staff fellow, joined the lab in 1984. Gartner officially left NCI April 7 and Popovic will leave by the end of the summer. Gallo's lab includes about 40 scientists, of which eight to 10 are senior researchers.

In addition to scientists in Gallo's lab, two other NCI officials are leaving or negotiating positions elsewhere. Joseph Cullen, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control deputy director since 1982 will become director of the American Medical Center in Denver by July 1. Daniel Nixon, associate director of the Cancer Prevention Research Program, has been offered a job at the American Cancer Society as vice president for professional education. His new position has not yet been finalized.