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Administration
  • Raymond L. White, Ph.D., Director
  • William R. Sawyers, J.D., Chief Administrative Officer

  • Robert O. Messing, M.D., Senior Associate Director

  • Antonello Bonci, M.D., Associate Director-Extramural Affairs

  • Nancy Green, Director of Administration

The Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center, although affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco, functions as an independent research institute, both administratively and operationally. Gallo Center support services include:

- Administration
- Human Resources
- Grants and Contracts
- Accounting
- Operations and Purchasing
- Information Technology

These services are supported primarily through indirect costs from NIH-sponsored grants awarded to the Gallo Center.



Raymond L. White, Ph.D., Director PDF Print E-mail
Raymond White is a pioneer in developing the molecular tools for construction of a map of genetic markers for the human genome. He was one of the first to recognize that the emerging advances in DNA technology were making it possible to directly detect base-pair changes in human DNA, and that these could be used as a large source of genetic markers. The human marker map and its markers have made it possible to pinpoint chromosomal locations of a number of genes that are responsible for inherited diseases. Hundreds of these genes have now been isolated following the paradigm of "positional cloning". He and his laboratory played key roles in the identification of the Neurofibromatosis Type I gene and the gene for familial polyposis, an inherited form of colon cancer. White’s laboratory also used the mapped genetic markers to examine the genetic events of tumorigenesis in retinoblastoma, showing that one copy of the "retinoblastoma gene" is often lost during tumor development. This led to the realization that many of the most important cancer genes act as tumor suppressors, where both copies of the gene must be inactivated, often by a chromosomal rearrangement. In 2002, Dr. White became the Director of the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center, and in 2003 he was appointed Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. White was honored with the Rudi Schmid Distinguished Professor Endowed Chair at UCSF in 2004. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine.
 
William R. Sawyers, Chief Administrative Officer PDF Print E-mail

William Sawyers joined the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center as Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel in 2005. In this role he oversees all non-scientific functions, including Finance & Accounting, Facilities, Administration, Grants and Contracts, Human Resources and Intellectual Property. He also supervises the Center’s efforts to partner with industry and to commercialize Gallo Center technologies.

Prior to joining the Gallo Center, Mr.Sawyers was a partner in the law firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP in San Francisco, where he represented public, private and not-for-profit companies in various matters including mergers, financings, contracts and corporate governance. Before moving to Orrick, Mr.Sawyers served as Vice President and General Counsel of Del Monte Foods Company, a NYSE company based in San Francisco.

Mr. Sawyers received his B.A., cum laude, from Williams College and his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law.
 
Robert O. Messing, Associate Director PDF Print E-mail

Dr. Messing joined the Gallo Center as a Principal Investigator in 1986 and became Associate Director in 2000.  In this role he oversees several internal scientific functions at the Center.  He also serves as a member of the Gallo Center Executive Committee, participates in oversight of the Gallo Preclinical Development Program, runs an active molecular and cell biology laboratory, and participates in the Human Clinical Research group at the center.

Dr. Messing is a Professor of Neurology and member of the Graduate Program in Neurosciences at UCSF.  He regularly attends on the neurology in-patient service and outpatient clinic at San Francisco General Hospital.  He also serves as Associate Editor of the Annals of Neurology and will be President of the Research Society on Alcoholism starting July 1, 2010.  Dr. Messing has served on several advisory and grant review boards, including the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the Board of Directors of the Research Society on Alcoholism, the Medical Advisory Council for the Alcoholic Beverage Medical Research Foundation, and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Epilepsy Therapy Development Project.

Dr. Messing received his BA in History in 1974 and his MD in 1979, both from Stanford University.  He trained in Internal Medicine from 1979-1981 at the University of Virginia, and then in Neurology at UCSF from 1981-1984, where he served as Chief Resident from 1983-1984.  He currently holds the Endowed Chair in Neurology in Honor of the Gallo Family.
 
Antonello Bonci, Associate Director-Extramural Affairs PDF Print E-mail

Dr. Bonci is a Professor of Neurology and holds the Howard J. Weinberger Chair in Addiction Research at UCSF, where he is a member of the Graduate Program in Neurosciences. He also serves as Associate Editor of The Journal of Neuroscience and as a regular member at the NMB study section at NIH. In 2004, Dr. Bonci received the Jacob P. Waletzky Award for innovative research on alcoholism and substance abuse from the Society for Neuroscience.

Dr. Bonci received his M.D. in 1991 from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome. He trained in Neurology at the University of Rome "Tor Vergata" from 1991-1995. He joined the Gallo Center as a Principal Investigator in 1999 and became the Associate Director-Extramural Affairs in January 2009. In this role Dr. Bonci oversees scientific collaborations with academic and commercial entities. He also serves as a member of the Gallo Center's Executive Committee.
 
Nancy Green, Director of Administration PDF Print E-mail

Nancy Green joined the Gallo Center in 2006 and is Director of Administration.  In this role she oversees the day-to-day operations of the Administrative Departments.  Nancy has 15 years of experience in management in the legal and biotech industries.  She is an active member of the Association of Legal Administrators.