Sylvester Researchers Receive National Cancer Institute's Career Development Awards
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Richard Westlund
April 8, 2021
Sylvester Researchers Receive
National Cancer Institute’s
Career Development Awards
Namrata Chandhok, M.D., assistant professor in the Division of
Hematology, has a deep interest in developing personalized
cancer treatments. “I hope my research will help us move
toward a more nuanced therapeutic approach by identifying
predictive biomarkers that will tell us whether a drug in
question will benefit a particular patient,” she said.
Dr. Chandhok is one of three researchers at Sylvester
Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller
School of Medicine to receive a 2021 Paul Calabresi Career
Development Award for Clinical Oncology (PCACO) K12 from the
National Cancer Institute (NCI).
“Sylvester has one of only 22 NCI-funded K12 programs in the
country,” said Alan Pollack, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair
of the Department of Radiation Oncology and interim deputy
director of Sylvester. “Since launching our K12 program in
2018, we have had five faculty scholars who are well on their
way to becoming leaders in patient-oriented, translational
cancer research.”
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April 8, 2021
Dr. Pollack announced
Sylvester’s third
cohort of Calabresi
Scholars, who will be
starting the program
in June. “The NCI
funds two scholars
for two-year terms,”
he said. “This year,
we are supporting a
third scholar from our own cancer center funds as a commitment
to this important program.”
Dr. Chandhok’s project, Exploiting Defective DNA Damage Repair
in Isocitrate Dehydrogenase Mutant Acute Myeloid Leukemia and
Myelodysplastic Syndrome to Develop Novel Therapeutic
Strategies, centers on a drug used in other cancers to see if
it evokes a stronger response in patients with these blood-
borne cancers. “The ultimate goal is to improve the lives of
patients with acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic
syndrome by moving scientific discoveries from our
laboratories to the bedside,” she said.
Janaki Sharma, M.D., assistant professor in the Division of
Medical Oncology, is another scholar awardee. Her project,
Repurposing Riociguat: A Novel Therapeutic Option for Prostate
Cancer, looks at a potential new option for the treatment of
metastatic prostate cancer. “This career development award
will allow me to bring a new discovery in the laboratory to
patients and to progress in my career as a researcher,” she
said. “It also represents our institution's trust and
confidence in me and my project to advance the science of
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April 8, 2021
prostate cancer treatment.”
This year’s third scholar is Trent Wang, D.O., M.P.H.,
assistant professor in the Division of Transplantation and
Cellular Therapy. His project is MEK Inhibition for the
Prevention of Graft-Versus-Host Disease in Combination with
Conventional Prophylaxis after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell
Transplantation.
Dr. Wang noted that 50 to 70 percent of patients who receive
transplanted donor bone marrow stem cells for a number of
conditions, such as leukemias, face the challenge of acute
graft-versus-host disease, which may be associated with
significant side effects and be difficult to control. “My
research priority to is to reduce the bone marrow transplant
toxicities and make this curative approach more broadly
accessible,” he said. “This award will allow me to collaborate
with basic scientists and to implement a clinical trial that I
hope will benefit our patients.”
Dr. Pollack introduced the three new scholars at the annual
K12 Paul Calabresi Symposium, a March 12 virtual conference
that brought together current and former scholars, former K12
scholars from other institutions, and principal investigators
of K12 grants from four prominent institutions to share their
experiences and formulas for success.
Scott Kopetz, M.D., Ph.D., professor and deputy chair of GI
oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center, delivered the keynote
address, “Learning from the Patient: Adaptive Resistance in
Colorectal Cancer.” A prior K12 scholar and a current co-PI of
a K12 grant, Dr. Kopetz advised cancer researchers to design
their studies so the results will provide insights, even if
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April 8, 2021
they fail. “We all anticipate that our ideas will work and
provide a meaningful advance for our patients,” he said. “But
if they fail, we still can learn something from that outcome.
We owe that to our patients.”
At the symposium, Sylvester’s five current Calabresi Scholars
presented their studies:
Juan Alderuccio, M.D., hematology, “Prognostic Value of
Metabolic Tumor Volume in Relapsed-Refractory Diffuse
Large B Cell Lymphoma.”
Neha Goel, M.D., surgical oncology, “Breast Cancer
Outcomes Among a Diverse Racial/Ethnic South Florida
Population: Novel Characterization of the Hispanic Black
Population.”
Eric Mellon, M.D., Ph.D., radiation oncology, “Daily
Multiparametric MRI of Glioblastoma During Primary
Chemoradiation Therapy.”
Terrence Bradley, M.D., hematology, “LSD1 inhibition in
Myeloproliferative Neoplasms.”
Daniel O’Neil, M.D., M.P.H., medical oncology, “Defining
Multifactorial Causes of Breast Cancer Survival
Disparities in Women Living with HIV.”
Three noted researchers took part in a career development
panel at the symposium: Justin Bekelman, M.D., professor at
the University of Pennsylvania; Christine Lovly, M.D., Ph.D.,
associate professor at Vanderbilt University; and Thomas Ow,
M.D., M.S., associate professor at Albert Einstein College of
Medicine. They encouraged the new Sylvester scholars to follow
their passions when choosing research topics. As Dr. Ow said,
“You have to know yourself and find the right balance between
research and clinical care.”
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April 8, 2021
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