Grants, Honors, Awards & Recognitions

Lucio Castilla, PhD, has received NIH funding from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to study tyrosine kinase inhibitors as preventive therapy in RUNX1-familial platelet disorder (RUNX1-FPD)—a type of hereditary blood disease, caused by mutations in the RUNX1 gene, that increases the lifetime risk of developing blood cancer. The grant will explore whether imatinib, a drug that is used to treat chronic myelogenous leukemia, can prevent or delay the development of blood cancer in a mouse model of RUNX1-FPD. The results of the study may support the use of imatinib in a phase-II clinical trial as preventive therapy in patients with RUNX1-FPD.

Ayush Kumar, an MD/PhD student in his third year of dissertation research in the lab of Art Mercurio, PhD, was selected as the winner of the 2024 AMA Research Challenge—a national competition hosted by the American Medical Association in which medical students and residents showcase their research, culminating in presenting their work to an elite panel of judges. The AMA Research Challenge is the largest multi-specialty medical research conference in the nation. Mr. Kumar will be awarded the grand prize of $10,000.

Watch a video of the finals and read the related story from UMass Chan News.

Scot Wolfe, PhD, and collaborator Charles Emerson, Jr. (professor of neurology and Director of the Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Program at UMass Chan) have received a three-year grant from the Muscular Dystrophy Association to develop a precise genome editing therapy to correct a common mutation in the TCAP gene, which leads to the R7 subtype of limb girdle muscular dystrophy. The project, which combines the use of stem cell, nanoparticle, mouse model and genome editing technologies, will provide a versatile platform to develop correction therapies for other gene mutations that cause other types of muscular dystrophy.

Andreas Bergmann, PhD, has been featured by the UMass Cancer Walk ahead of the annual event. Learn more about how Dr. Bergmann got into the field of cancer research, and his thoughts on what makes UMass Chan a special place to do research.

Read the full story on the UMass Cancer Walk website.

Marcus Ruscetti, PhD, and collaborator (and MCCB adjunct faculty) Prabhani Atukorale, PhD, have been featured in a news spotlight by NBC10 Boston to showcase their ground-breaking combination immunotherapy approach that drammatically reduces pancreatic tumors in mice.

Watch the video from NBC10 Boston, and read the related story from UMass Chan News.

Yong-Xu Wang, PhD, has received NIH funding from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) to investigate a new approach for resolution of nonalcoholic fatty liver and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis by a novel adipokine. Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a type of liver disease caused by the accumulation of fat in the organ, and can lead to cirrhosis, liver failure and cancer. The grant will determine whether an adipose-enriched cytokine identified by Dr. Wang’s group can improve NASH symptoms in mouse models of the disease, and will investigate the cytokine’s mechanism-of-action.