Professor Nouri Neamati’s lab has received support from the Sharon L. Cockrell Cancer Research Fund.
SHARON L. and WILLIAM J. COCKRELL ENDOWED CANCER RESEARCH FUND Bill and Sharon Cockrell aren’t School of Pharmacy alums. In fact, they didn’t know much about the School until the 90’s when a friend told them about the School’s work in drug design and development. Interested in the possibilities of future cancer treatments, they began to support the School of Pharmacy. Years passed and Sharon was diagnosed with breast cancer. Like most people, the diagnosis led them to learn as much as they could about the disease and its treatment. Sharon survived and regained her health. The Cockrells continued to support the School of Pharmacy’s research efforts. Some years later, Sharon was diagnosed with a rare sarcoma. She fought the disease and survived for about 20 months—considerably longer than her first prognosis. Toward the end of her life, while she realized the therapies of the day could not save her, she believed in the continued support of the School of Pharmacy’s cancer research and in the promise it held for cancer patients of the future. Upon Sharon’s death, Bill and friends set up the Sharon L. Cockrell Cancer Research Fund. The first gift of this fund has
been made to support the cancer drug design and development work of Nouri Neamati, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences. “I was so impressed by Dr. Neamati’s enthusiasm for his work. His outlook is shared by his team members—there’s a camaraderie and a spirit of hope in the lab,” says Cockrell. Cockrell’s support hasn’t stopped there. He has also set up an estate gift that will eventually endow the cancer research fund at the School of Pharmacy. The Cockrell gift will give in perpetuity and perhaps support the development of a therapy that will save cancer patients in the future. “That’s what Sharon and I hoped,” says Cockrell.
For more information on estate gift planning, contact Jennifer Watson at 323.442.1382 or freeh@usc.edu.
SUMMER 2008 | USC PHARMACY MAGAZINE
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