For the last 32 years, former CHTN Southern Division Principal Investigator (PI), Dr. William Grizzle, and Division Coordinator, Kathy Sexton, dedicated their professional lives to improving the world of biorepository sciences and assisting the research community by establishing and growing the CHTN into the most reliable biospecimen resource for the scientific community. In 1987, the CHTN Southern Division, formerly located at The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), was awarded one of the first of the three original CHTN grants from the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
Although the CHTN is happy to report the NCI agreed to support the highly valuable resource for another five-year funding cycle, the CHTN Southern Division has changed locations and is now located at Duke University. This means we have to say good-bye to two of the founding members of the CHTN, Kathy Sexton and Dr. Bill Grizzle.
In addition to his responsibilities as a board-certified pathologist at UAB Medical Center and the PI of the Southern Division, Dr. Grizzle has published hundreds of articles and book chapters and presented at more meetings than one can count. Kathy and Dr. Grizzle are both founding members of the International Society of Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER), and as former council members assisted in the creation of the ISBER Best Practices for Repositories. Dr. Grizzle was also a former president of this society, and Kathy have received prestigious awards for their work in biorepository sciences. Together, they have presented at numerous national and international workshops on the design and operations of biorepositories.
Words cannot express how appreciative and grateful we are for the time and dedication of Dr. Grizzle and Kathy. Without these two remarkable, hardworking, and committed individuals, the CHTN would not be here today serving the scientific community with more than 1,280,000 specimens since 1987. Dr. Grizzle and Kathy, thank you simply does not express our gratitude for everything you have done for the CHTN, but from the bottom of our hearts, we thank you!