Grants, Honors, Awards & Recognitions

Nate MacGilvary, a PhD student in the lab of Sharon Cantor, PhD, has received an NIH National Research Service Award predoctoral training fellowship from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to investigate replication gap suppression in distinct models of chemoresistant BRCA mutant cancers.

The study will build upon recent groundbreaking research in the Cantor lab showing that small nicks (or gaps) in one strand of the DNA, rather than complete double-strand breaks as previously thought, are a key vulnerability in hereditary breast and ovarian cancers (HBOCs, most often caused by a mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene) that renders them sensitive to chemotherapy. MacGilvary’s research will investigate whether chemoresistance, which poses a major challenge to the treatment of HBOCs, develops because a cancer cell acquires the ability to repair these small gaps—a mechanism called gap suppression.

The results of the study will identify biological pathways that contribute to chemoresistance in HBOC, paving the way for future development of therapeutic strategies that target these pathways as a means of resensitizing chemoresistant HBOCs to therapy.

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.