The Sbarro agreement is the latest in the growth of support for the research enterprise at Temple, particularly in the College of Science and Technology. Over the past four years research funding in CST has increased over 60 percent, from $10.5 million in fiscal year 2001 to $16.3 million in fiscal year 2004.

"The Sbarro Health Research Organization is a key participant in basic biomedical research on Temple's Main Campus," said Allen Nicholson, Ph.D., acting dean of the College of Science and Technology. "I am enthusiastic about the prospects of expanding SHRO's research activities in the areas of molecular therapeutics and the relationship between obesity and cancer. I fully expect the college to be an effective partner in these initiatives."

"The creation of the new molecular therapeutics program is another sign of the Sbarro Institute's growth," says Giordano. "But our future goals will be to strengthen other programs, so we are discussing with Dean Nicholson other opportunities to create medical research links with other departments in the College of Science and Technology."

Giordano is credited with discovering the tumor-supressing gene Rb2/p130, as well as two other genes, CDK9 (cyclin-dependent kinase) and CDK10 (PISSLRE), which are considered major guardians of the human genome, and more recently Novel Structure Proteins, a new family of genes that could serve as potential tumor markers.

He and other the scientists in the Sbarro Institute have conducted research that has led to new technologies for diagnosing lung, ovarian, endometrial, breast and brain tumors, as well as lymphomas. Their work and other SHRO-funded research has been published in more than 200 articles appearing in internationally acclaimed scientific journals.

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Contact: Preston M. Moretz
pmoretz@temple.edu
215-204-7476
Temple University
7-Jun-2005