ASCOPost.com | OCTOBER 15, 2012
PAGE 103
Announcements
Einstein-Montefiore Scientists Awarded NCI Grants to Study ‘Provocative Questions’ in Cancer Research
T
wo research teams at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Montefiore Medical Center, the University Hospital for Einstein, have each been awarded grants from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as part of their “Provocative Questions” program. The innovative effort is designed to ignite investigations into 24 promising but neglected or unexplored areas of research. Answering the questions would dramatically enhance ongoing efforts to prevent, treat and cure the disease.
phenomenon, which they call “tissueselective tumorigenesis.” The model they’ll be using in their study is a rare condition that results in human cancer called multiple endocrine
neoplasia type 1 (MEN1). This inherited cancer results from a mutation in the MEN1 gene. Since MEN1 is a tumorsuppressor gene, mutations in this gene permit tumors to occur. People with this
cancer have a mutated MEN1 gene in every cell of their body, yet their tumors occur only in their endocrine glands (most often the parathyroid glands, the pancontinued on page 104
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Shared Resources The Einstein-Montefiore grants—2 of only 57 given nationwide and only five in New York City, and totaling more than $3 million over the next 5 years— are aimed at determining why cancer arises in certain tissues and how the disease spreads. Grant recipients are Steven Libutti, MD, Richard Kitsis, MD, John Condeelis, PhD, Sumanta Goswami, PhD, and Maja Oktay, MD, PhD. Both research teams will leverage the shared resources and unique assets of the two institutions to tackle their research projects, tapping into the clinical opportunities at Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care and the advanced technical resources at the Albert Einstein Cancer Center and the Gruss Lipper Biophotonics Center.
Steven Libutti, MD
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Richard Kitsis, MD
‘Tissue-selective Tumorigenesis’ The first grant, awarded to Drs. Libutti and Kitsis, will investigate why certain mutations promote cancer in some tissues of the body but not in others. The researchers will try to identify the factors responsible for this
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