For Immediate Release:
September 15, 1999

CONTACT: Jenifer Flatley
(916) 734-9040

INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED RESEARCHER JOINS UC DAVIS MEDICAL CENTER

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) - Mark Allen Zern, an acclaimed liver researcher, has been named director of the UC Davis Transplant Research Institute. ZernŐs appointment is well-timed. Considerable interest and debate has arisen after the widely reported auction of a personŐs kidney on the World Wide Web. "Anxiety over the lack of donor organs led to the auction and indicates the need for research to develop new approaches to the transplantation process," says Zern. His research goals for the Institute aim to ease the organ donor dilemma.

Recognized for his work in liver fibrosis research, gene therapy and the targeting of therapeutics to the liver, Zern says the InstituteŐs research will involve two primary strategies: to improve the transplantation process itself, and to develop novel therapeutic approaches that may obviate the need for transplantation.

Zern, a Harvard Medical School graduate, previously was a professor of pathology, anatomy, cell biology and professor of medicine at Jefferson Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. Zern will work collaboratively with doctors and research scientists from the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Division of Biological Sciences and California Regional Primate Research Center.

"There are very few places, if any, in the country that have the variety of departments with the various expertise of doctors and research scientists that can help to further the transplant research process," says Zern.

ZernŐs appointment is the latest effort by the medical centerŐs Transplant Hope endowment fund-raising campaign to help establish the UC Davis Transplant Research Institute as a world leader in the multidisciplinary application of both clinical and basic science research in organ transplantation science within the next decade.

"We want to provide for transplant what the Salk vaccine did for polio, and Zern is just the person to do that," says Pamela Hurt-Hobday, Transplant Hope chair. "Contributions to Transplant Hope will fund breakthrough research at the Institute that may prove significant for treating many diseases, including those of the kidney, liver, pancreas, lungs and immune system."

Zern will be introduced during the Transplant Hope Gold Fever event on Wednesday, September 15, at 6 p.m. at the Memorial Auditorium, located at 1515 J Street in Sacramento.

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