MINNEAPOLIS/ST.PAUL (April 23, 2009)—The Masonic Cancer Center's American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant (ACS IRG) Committee has completed and submitted its progress report and the next three-year competitive renewal application to the ACS. The nineteen ACS IRG awardees of the current reporting period have demonstrated outstanding performance and productivity in their research. They have a total of 172 peer-reviewed publications (26 publications resulting from ACS-IRG support and 146 publications resulting from subsequent funding from other sources), 33 NIH grants (26 awarded, 7 pending), and 31 research grants from other national funding agencies (28 awarded, 3 pending). The research projects of these nineteen ACS IRG awardees and the most recent awardees (*not reviewed) are listed below.

The ACS IRG award is $30,000 in direct costs to support the initiation of promising cancer-related research projects by assistant professors. The next application deadline is Monday, May 11, 2009. Instructions and application forms are available by contacting LeAnn Micek (626-1926, micek003@umn.edu).

• Fekadu Kassie, D.V.M., MSc, Ph.D.*
  Department of Veterinary Clinical Science
  "Proteomics analysis of metastasis-associated proteins in Human and canine osteosarcoma cells"
• Jonathan N. Sachs, Ph.0.D*
  Department of Biomedical Engineering
  "Probing the structure and dynamics of TRAIL-R2 (DR5): What is the functional significance of two alternately spliced isoforms?"
• Timothy C. Hallstrom, Ph.D.*
  Department of Pediatrics
  "Mechanistic Control of Jab1/E2F1 Apoptosis in Cancer"
• Kathryn Schwertfeger, Ph.D.*
  Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology
  "Cross-talk between growth factors and cytokines in breast cancer initiation"
• Koho Iizuka, M.D.
  Department of Medicine,
  "Functional analysis of the NK receptor stalk region for NK cell development and function"
• Simona Ognjanovic, Ph.D.
  Department of Pediatrics
  "Epidemiology of HBV infection and hepatocellular carcinoma"
• Sean D. Conner, Ph.D.
  Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development
  "The role of numb phjosphorylation in notch receptor transport"
• Deepali Sachdev,Ph.D.
  Department of Medicine
  "Non-invasive magnetic resonance spectroscopy monitoring of multiplexed metabolic parameters in a tumor as a biomarker or response to IGF-IR target therapy"
• Venkatram R. Mereddy, Ph.D.
  Departments of Chemistry and Pharmacy, Swenson College of Science and Engineering, Duluth MN
  "Synthesis and evaluation of aminoboronic acid analogs as anticancer agents"
• Kathleen D. Vohs, Ph.D.
  Marketing and Logistics Management, Carlson School of Management
  "The importance of self-regulation in preventing skin cancer"
• Peter S. Dahlberg, M.D., Ph.D.
  Department of Surgery
  "Biomarkers of ERBB2-mediated translational activation in esophageal cancer"
• Efrosini Kokkoli, PhD
  Department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science
  "Engineering of targeted stealth liposomes for cancer applications"
• John Ohlfest, Ph.D.
  Department of Neurosurgery
  "Immuno-gene therapy for intracranial breast cancer metastases"
• Shana J. Sturla, Ph.D.
  Department of Medicinal Chemistry, College of Pharmacy
  "The reaction of acylfulvene with DNA"
• Leng Chee Chang, Ph.D.
  Department of Chemistry, Swenson College of Science and Engineering, Duluth, MN
  "Evaluation of natural products as protein kinase inhibitors"
• Timothy Griffin, Ph.D.
  Department of Bioichemistry, Molecular Biology & Biophysics
  "Development of a proteomic strategy to identify changes in chromatin associated proteins"
• Brenda J. Weigel, M.D.
  Department of Pediatrics
  "A comparison of toll-like receptor (TLR) 9 and 7/8 agonists in a murine model of acute leukemia"
• Keli L. Hippen, Ph.D.
  Department of Pediatrics
  "Two new models in investigate the auto-immune nature of B cell Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia"
• Julio E. Herrera, Ph.D.
  Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology & Biophysics
  "Transcriptional repression of oncogene Op18/Stahmin by the anti-cancer agent doxorubicin"
• Hiroshi Matsuo, Ph.D.
  Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology & Biophysics
  "Revealing molecular mechanisms of the DEK protein"
• Deanna Koepp, Ph.D.
  Department of Genetics, Cell Biology & Development
  "Functional specificity of SCF ubiquitin ligase isoforms"
• Paul C. Marker, Ph.D.
  Department of Genetics, Cell Biology & Development
  "Stromal genes in prostate cancer progression"
• Michael Verneris, M.D., Department of Pediatrics, Medical School
  "The enhancement of NK cell cytotoxicty of SHP-1 RNA interference"

 

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Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota is part of the University's Academic Health Center. It is designated by the National Cancer Institute as a comprehensive cancer center for cancer research, treatment, and education. For more information, visit www.cancer.umn.edu or call 612-624-2620.

Media Contacts:

Mary Lawson, Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, 612-624-6165, mlawson@umn.edu

Sara Martin, Academic Health Center, 612-626-7037, buss@umn.edu