2021 Director’s Award, Pilot and Travel Award Recipients

The University of Kansas Cancer Center announced its 2021 recipients of the Director’s Awards, which recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the cancer center’s mission, and Pilot Awards, which funds promising novel research being conducted by cancer center members. Travel Award recipients, who receive financial support to attend scientific conferences, are announced below.

The announcements were made at the institution’s second annual Cancer Research Week, a virtual event bringing together cancer center’s members and cancer center community. More than 270 people participated in Cancer Research Week activities. Activities included scientific presentations by our research faculty and patient research advocates, as well as a state of the cancer center update by Roy Jensen, MD, vice chancellor and director of KU Cancer Center. The week ended with a keynote presentation by Donald L. (Skip) Trump, MD, FACP, FASCO, and Eric T. Rosenthal. 

Director’s Awards

Basic Science
Tomoo Iwakuma, MD, PhD, Co-leader, Cancer Biology research program

Civic Leadership + Philanthropy Award
Kathleen Sebelius, Former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services; Former Governor, Kansas

Clinical Science
Gary Doolittle, MD, Medical Director, Masonic Cancer Alliance

Clinical Trial Accrual
Weijing Sun, MD, Director, Medical Oncology; Associate Director for Clinical Research

Clinical Trial Referrals
Jaswinder Singh, MD, Hematologist Oncologist, Sarah Cannon Cancer Institute at Research Medical Center

William Jewell Team Science Award
Institute for Advancing Medical Innovation Team

Young Scientist
Megha Ramaswamy, PhD, MPH, Professor, Population Health

Pilot Awards

Ramesh Balusu, PhD, Precision therapy for acute myeloid leukemia
David Jarmolowicz, PhD, Chemobrain: Agent specific effects on hippocampal and striatal function
Mihaela Sardiu, PhD, Predicting cancer outcomes using integrated biomedical networks

Selected Speakers

Trainee Speakers

• Junxing Zhao, Elucidation of cGAS-STING pathway by small molecules
• Soumya Turaga, Identification of a novel and synergistic drug combination for treatment of recurrent and refractory Ewing sarcoma
  

PIVOT
Each selected speaker received a travel award to attend conferences and/or scientific meetings.

• Levi Arnold, On the cutting edge of the leading edge: The role of DCLK1 in invadopodia
• Hannah Moran, "That's what I was being called for": Mentorship emboldens survivorship through a gynecologic cancer peer-to-peer mentorship program
•  Ashley Tetlow, Discovering small extracellular vesicle-associated microRNA signatures to detect diverse ovarian cancer subtypes

Cancer Prevention & Control research program
Each selected speaker received a travel award to attend conferences and/or scientific meetings.

• Hannah Moran, “That’s what I was being called for”: Mentorship emboldens survivorship through a gynecologic cancer peer-to-peer mentorship program
• Harshdeep Acharya, Evaluating the CATSystem to improve cervical cancer care in Kenya: a mixed methods study
•  Aditi Rastogi, Mouse-INtraDuctal (MIND): An in vivo model for studying the underlying mechanisms of DCIS malignancy

Drug Discovery, Delivery and Experimental Therapeutics research program
Each selected speaker received a travel award to attend conferences and/or scientific meetings.

• Sahida Afroz, Characterization of a novel role for Rab27B in autophagy regulation in colorectal cancer
• Ian Freed, Longitudinal monitoring of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients treated with the PARPi
• Sidharth Ramesh, Identification of prognostically significant molecular pathways in infants diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia
• Ashley Tetlow, Discovering small extracellular vesicle-associated microRNA signatures to detect diverse ovarian cancer subtypes,
• Sangita Bhattacharyya, Fosciclopirox suppresses growth of acute myeloid leukemia by targeting the γ-secretase complex
• Obdulia Covarrubias Zambrano, Development of gene delivery system composed of a cell-penetrating peptide and a nontoxic polymer
• Taylor Otwell, Developing inhibitors of Crk and CrkL for cancer treatment
•  Priya Sabu, Targeting Aurora Kinase A and Mitotic Kinesin KIF11 in ovarian cancer

Cancer Biology research program
* Received a travel award to attend conferences and/or scientific meetings.

• Anika James, The role of nuclear APC in regulating MUC2 expression and colonic inflammation* 
• Haeyoung Kim, Molecular function of Ewing sarcoma EWS protein in mitosis and chromosome stability*
• Hongyi Ren, MDM2 regulates taxane sensitivity by inducing degradation of stathmin 1 as a novel vulnerability independent of p53* 
• Mariana Ruckert, DUSP6 modulates PDAC metastatic process through glycolysis regulation* 
• Afreen Asif Ali Sayed, Evaluating role of CELF2 in modulating immune response in colitis*
• McKinnon Walsh, Adipose-PDAC crosstalk alters the tumor immune profile via CXCL5 secretion*
• Shigeto Nishikawa, Identifying a novel HSP40/J-domain protein inhibitor that depletes mutant p53 to inhibit cancer malignancy*
• Nadia Alissa, The chemokine C-C motif ligand 2 (CCL2) plays an important role in skeletal muscle wasting associated with breast cancer*
• Harmony Saunders, COL11A1 suppresses natural killer cells in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma*
• David Standing, IRAK1: a novel TOLLway to target chemoresistant ovarian cancer*
• Lauryn Werner, Progesterone promotes immunomodulation and tumor development in the murine mammary gland*
• Elizabeth Thoenen, Stress granule inhibition is a novel vulnerability of mutant p53*
• Qing Xia, shinyOPTIK, a user-friendly shinyR application for visualizing cancer risk factors and mortality across The University of Kansas Cancer Center catchment area*
• Austin Eades, White and brown adipose tissue factors have opposing effects on PDAC growth
• Levi Arnold, On the cutting edge of the leading edge: The role of DCLK1 in invadopodia 
• Stephanie Aron, Determining the role of IL-24 in enhanced tumor rejection by NKG2D ligand-expressing CTL 
• Rebecca Brodine, Role of glucose and glutamine metabolism in CCL2/CCR2 mediated DCIS progression
• Priyanka Radadiya, Tumoral expression of CCL2 in doxorubicin treated breast cancer patients presenting with sarcopenia
• Patrick Ross, Covalent chemical strategies to enhance anti-cancer cell therapies
• Rosalyn Zimmermann, Breast Cancer Metastasis Suppressor 1 (BRMS1) alters cancer-associated protein interactors based on phospho-status
• Payel Bhanja, Modulation of chemokine signaling alters myeloid derived stroma and improve therapeutic ratio of abdominal and thoracic radio-surgery