New York, NY -- The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation named 18 new Damon Runyon Fellows at its May 2007 Scientific Advisory Committee review. The recipients of this prestigious, three-year award are outstanding postdoctoral scientists conducting basic and translational cancer research in the laboratories of leading senior investigators across the country. The Fellowship is specifically intended to encourage the nation's most promising young investigators to pursue careers in cancer research by providing them with independent funding to work on innovative projects. The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation has committed more than $140 million to support the careers of cancer researchers across the United States since the programs inception.
2007 Damon Runyon Fellows
Danielle S.W. Benoit, PhD, with her sponsor Patrick S. Stayton, PhD, at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, is developing novel drug delivery systems for a new class of biomolecular anti-cancer agents called siRNAs.
Maya Capelson, PhD, with her sponsor Martin W. Hetzer, PhD, at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California, is investigating the role of “gene gates” or nuclear pores in tumor formation and cancer progression.
Lea A. Goentoro, PhD, with her sponsor Marc W. Kirschner, PhD, at Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, is looking for clues as to how a key regulator of cell-to-cell communication commonly mutated in colon, liver, skin, and ovarian cancers called the Wnt pathway, transmits signals.
Michael D. Gordon, PhD, with his sponsor Kristin Scott, PhD, at the University of California, Berkeley, California, is defining the neural circuits that control feeding - providing fundamental knowledge to frame the growing health crisis of obesity.
Ryan C. Heller, PhD, with his sponsor Stephen P. Bell, PhD, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, is identifying the determinants of proper DNA replication - a key issue for understanding how mistakes in DNA duplication contribute to mutations common in cancer cells.
Thomas M. Huckaba, PhD, with his sponsor Ronald D. Vale, PhD, at the University of California, San Francisco, California, is defining the way in which the organization of the cellular scaffold impacts cancer cell spread or metastasis.
Melissa R. Junttila, PhD, with her sponsor Gerard I. Evan, PhD, at the University of California, San Francisco, California, is designing new mouse models to challenge long standing dogma about how p53, the most commonly mutated gene in human cancer, contributes to tumor formation and aging processes.
László Kürti, PhD, with his sponsor Elias James Corey, PhD, at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, is devising a chemical synthesis strategy for the natural compound Cortistatin A, a novel anti-cancer drug that targets metastatic disease.
David S. Matus, PhD, with his sponsor David R. Sherwood, PhD, at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, is using a powerful genetic model to identify the gene networks that control cell invasion – a critical step in understanding how cancer cells spread.
Yunsun Nam, PhD, with her sponsor Tom A. Rapoport, PhD, at Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, is determining how protein molecules are transported into and out of the cell – a fundamental question with potential impact in the areas of carcinogenesis, drug transport, and drug discovery.
Cara T. Pager, PhD, with her sponsor Peter Sarnow, PhD, at Stanford University, Stanford, California, is deciphering the role of newly discovered small RNAs in the regulation of the hepatitis C virus, a novel approach with implications for liver cancer antiviral therapies.
Katharina Schlacher, PhD, with her sponsor Maria Jasin, PhD, at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, is defining DNA repair mechanisms that contribute to breast and ovarian cancers.
Heather M. Scobie, PhD, with her sponsor Jorge E. Galán, PhD, DVM, at the Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, is studying how microbial pathogens like Campylobacter jejuni contribute to lymphomas and other cancers.
Sarah E. Siegrist, PhD, with her sponsor Iswar K. Hariharan, MBBS, PhD, at the University of California, Berkeley, California, is uncovering novel genes that control cell growth and neurogenesis in the adult brain - key processes for understanding the origins of brain cancers.
Karsten H. Siller, PhD, with his sponsor Lu Chen, PhD, at the University of California, Berkeley, California, is using simple genetic systems to investigate how molecules that are mis-regulated in cancer act to control neuron to neuron signaling.
Tao Wang, PhD, with his sponsor Bruce A. Edgar, PhD, at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, is using fruit flies, a powerful genetic system, to flesh out new genes involved in the TOR pathway, a critical regulator of growth and survival in a number of cancers.
Kathryn E. Wellen, PhD, with her sponsor Craig B. Thompson, MD, at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is designing new cell and mouse model systems of leukemia and glioblastoma to investigate the relationship between cellular energy production, growth and survival.
Yu Wong, MD, PhD, with his sponsor Mark M. Davis, PhD, at Stanford University, Stanford, California, is developing a novel method to monitor the immune system in breast cancer patients with the goal of designing a targeted immunotherapy.
DAMON RUNYON CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION
During the 61 years since its founding, the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation has gained worldwide prominence in cancer research by identifying outstanding young scientists and physician-scientists and providing them with financial support for their research. Each of the award programs is extremely competitive, with fewer than 10% of applications funded. There are 11 Nobel Prize winning scientists in the Damon Runyon alumni community and numerous Damon Runyon Scientists have gone on to leadership positions in science and medicine. Currently, over 100 Damon Runyon Scientists are working at leading cancer research institutions in the United States.