{"id":12677,"date":"2026-03-04T12:10:41","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T18:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/?p=12677"},"modified":"2026-03-04T12:10:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T18:10:41","slug":"fighting-cancer-saving-lives-with-our-florida-alumni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/2026\/03\/04\/fighting-cancer-saving-lives-with-our-florida-alumni\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting cancer, saving lives with our Florida alumni"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Naples-PTR-2-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1753\" src=\"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Naples-PTR-2-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"President Choi at the Naples Power the Roar event.\" class=\"wp-image-12678\" style=\"width:350px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Naples-PTR-2-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Naples-PTR-2-300x205.jpg 300w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Naples-PTR-2-1024x701.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Naples-PTR-2-768x526.jpg 768w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Naples-PTR-2-1536x1052.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Naples-PTR-2-2048x1402.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>At alumni events across the country, we continue to share Mizzou\u2019s transformative impact and the critical importance of <a href=\"https:\/\/powertheroar.com\/\">Power the Roar<\/a> \u2013 a bold, $2 billion campaign to secure our land-grant mission for generations. We recently returned to Naples, Florida, home of a large and dedicated Tiger community, to showcase our work as a global leader in the fight against cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of many highlights was a luncheon featuring\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/precisionhealth.missouri.edu\/people\/gerhard-hildebrandt-md\">Dr. Gerhard Hildebrandt<\/a>, an expert in blood cancer and director of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.muhealth.org\/locations\/ellis-fischel-cancer-center\/ellis-fischel-history\">Ellis Fischel Cancer Center<\/a>.\u00a0Dr. Hildebrandt shared remarkable advancements in cancer treatment that are\u00a0available right here in mid-Missouri, including\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.muhealth.org\/our-stories\/playing-win-debbies-lymphoma-and-car-t-cell-therapy-story\">CAR-T cell therapy<\/a>. He also discussed the growing role of nuclear medicine and radioisotopes, such as those produced at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.murr.missouri.edu\/\">the University of Missouri Research Reactor<\/a>,\u00a0as well as the importance of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/showme.missouri.edu\/2026\/university-of-missouri-conducts-first-in-person-clinical-trial-for-nuclear-medicine-breakthrough-device\/\">clinical trials<\/a>\u00a0in expanding breakthrough discoveries.\u00a0Many prominent Mizzou supporters were in attendance, including Gary and Missy Pinkel,\u00a0Mike\u00a0and Christy Otten, Alan and Mary Atterbury and former chair of the University of Missouri Board of Curators Julia Brncic and her husband Steve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At our keynote presentation on Thursday evening, <a href=\"https:\/\/medicine.missouri.edu\/faculty\/paul-de-figueiredo-phd\">Dr. Paul de Figueiredo<\/a> provided a moving overview of the history of cancer research at Mizzou and how he and his team are <a href=\"https:\/\/showme.missouri.edu\/2023\/19-million-grant-to-help-researcher-accelerate-fight-against-cancer-with-new-therapeutic\/\">pioneering novel treatments<\/a> that can greatly reduce the cost of care for patients and their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At each event, I enjoy sharing Mizzou\u2019s lifesaving accomplishments with our proud alumni. I also enjoy hearing firsthand how a Mizzou education prepared them to make a difference \u2013 and how they are ready to share that same opportunity with others through <a href=\"https:\/\/powertheroar.com\/\">Power the Roar<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2014 Mun<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At alumni events across the country, we continue to share Mizzou\u2019s transformative impact and the critical importance of Power the Roar \u2013 a bold, $2 billion campaign to secure our land-grant mission for generations. We recently returned to Naples, Florida, home of a large and dedicated Tiger community, to showcase our work as a global leader in the fight against cancer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12677"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12683,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12677\/revisions\/12683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}