Liau, a Jonsson Cancer Center researcher and an assistant professor of neurosurgery, will receive $200,000 over two years from the Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research. Founded in 1993, the foundation provides grants to improve the basic understanding of cancer biology and foster development of new methods to prevent and treat cancer.
Liau and her research team cloned a suspected cancer-causing gene called GDOX, which is over-expressed in brain tumors and appears to promote tumor cell growth in cell cultures. The Kimmel grant will fund studies to further authenticate the importance of GDOX in cancer development. Liau and her team will study the growth regulatory effects of the gene in laboratory models and characterize its correlation with brain cancer prognosis and survival.
"This award will allow me to pursue a new avenue of research into a novel gene that has yet to be characterized. Investigating unknown genetic pathways in cancer is a riskier approach to my work, which I don't think would have been possible without funding provided by organizations like the Kimmel Foundation," Liau said. "The Kimmel Scholar program is really a wonderful thing. I am very grateful I was selected to receive this award."
The organization received 160 applications for funding in 2003 and awarded just 16 grants, said Dr. Gary I. Cohen, administrative director of the foundation and director of the Cancer Center at Greater Baltimore Medical Center.
"The foundation supports the programs of accomplished young investigators that emphasize basic research and the rapid translation of scientific concepts into potential novel therapies," Cohen said. "We feel young scientists such as Dr. Liau will ultimately make the discoveries that lead to decreased morbidity and mortality from cancer in the years ahead."
For more information about UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center, its people and resources, visit www.cancer.mednet.ucla.edu/.