Dr. Yves DeClerck honored as first recipient of Richard Call Family Endowed Chair

Yves A. DeClerck, MD, professor of Pediatrics, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, has been inducted as the inaugural holder of the Richard Call Family Endowed Chair in Pediatric Research Innovation.

“By establishing this endowment, Dr. Call honors his family's longstanding commitment to research while honoring the lifetime achievements of Dr. Yves DeClerck”

"My family has long been dedicated to improving the health of children. In these times of increased need and diminishing resources, we are renewing our commitment to the lives of children by continuing to partner in these efforts with Dr. Yves DeClerck and The Saban Research Institute," said Richard Call, MD.

"By establishing this endowment, Dr. Call honors his family's longstanding commitment to research while honoring the lifetime achievements of Dr. Yves DeClerck," said Brent Polk, MD, director of The Saban Research Institute.

For more than three decades, Dr. Richard Call has worked in promoting the research mission of Children's Hospital Los Angeles and obtaining the strong support of the community. In 1994, he founded the Board of Governors of the Children's Hospital Los Angeles Research Institute. The following year he established an endowment, the Richard Call Chair in Research Administration. Also in 1995, Dr. Call was instrumental in recruiting Dr. DeClerck as director of what later became The Saban Research Institute. Dr. DeClerck held the position of director of The Saban Research Institute for fifteen years.

As part of the scientific symposium Dr. DeClerck gave the inaugural address, summarizing 30 years of cancer research by his laboratory at Children's Hospital, now leading to therapeutic strategies of the tumor microenvironment.

"Yves' comments at Grand Rounds were inspiring and motivating to me as a physician, scientist, and fellow human being. I also know that they were evidence to our many medical students, residents and fellows in attendance, of the lifetime of rewards as an academic pediatric physician scientist," Dr. Polk indicated.

The symposium featured researchers from Children's Hospital, the Keck School of Medicine, and the Geffen School of Medicine of the University of California, Los Angeles. The keynote speaker, concluding the full-day program, was Lisa M. Coussens, PhD, co-director of the Cancer, Immunity, and Microenvironment Program at the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center of the University of California, San Francisco.

"I am deeply appreciative to Dr. Call and his family for honoring me as the first recipient of the endowed chair, which will enable me to expand my ongoing research program concerning the tumor microenvironment to the next level, advancing to clinical trials in children with metastatic cancer," said Dr. DeClerck. "This chair will also provide an opportunity to train and develop the next generation of scientists at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and the Keck School of Medicine."