USA Health has a comprehensive biomedical research program that spans a wide range of clinical, basic and translational research. At the Mitchell Cancer Institute, our physicians and scientific investigators are searching for breakthrough discoveries to improve the lives of cancer patients.
The $10,000 award is presented annually to a promising scientist at the Mitchell Cancer Institute upon the recommendation of a faculty committee.
Santanu Dasgupta, Ph.D., was awarded $423,500 from the NIMHD, part of the National Institutes of Health, to study mitochondrial DNA mutations in the blood of patients diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer.
The team’s research was published in Molecular Cancer Research, a journal that features articles describing novel basic cancer research discoveries.
In a recently published study, researchers examined the expression of MYB in prostate tumor tissues of various histological grades and clinical stages from Black and white patients, and evaluated if it could be used to predict the risk of cancer recurrence following primary therapy.
The highly competitive grants provide each investigator $100,000 in funding over a two-year period.
“The broader vision and mission of our study is to develop a minimally invasive blood test kit for early diagnostics, monitoring, and guiding therapeutic planning of triple-negative breast cancer patients.”
“To address race-associated prostate cancer disparities, it is important first to understand how tumors from different races differ in their biology and molecular landscape,” said Ajay Singh, Ph.D.
The findings by scientists and physicians at the Mitchell Cancer Institute could be useful in developing a non-invasive test for pancreatic cancer diagnosis.
“Our preliminary studies make strong suggestions for a pathobiological involvement of nicotine exposure in prostate cancer aggressiveness and therapy resistance.”
Santanu Dasgupta, Ph.D., will use a $126,000 grant from the Elsa U. Pardee Foundation to explore early epigenetic changes in cervical cancer with a goal of developing improved prevention strategies.
