Johns Hopkins Medicine
Office of Corporate Communications
Media Contact: Vanessa Wasta
410-955-1287; wastava@jhmi.edu
June 7, 2004
Johns Hopkins Scientists Receive Top Cancer Research Awards
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) awarded grants totaling more than $630,000 to Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center faculty members Vered Stearns, M.D., and William Matsui, M.D at the 40th annual ASCO meeting. They will receive the awards in New Orleans on June 6, 2004.
Vered Stearns, M.D., assistant professor of oncology is the inaugural recipient of ASCO’s Advanced Clinical Research Award for her plans to study new chemotherapy agents for early breast cancer. The award is given to clinical scientists early in their career with a focus on research directly benefiting patients. Stearns’ research interests include evaluating the signatures within cancer cells that determine which therapies a woman may benefit. She is studying ways to predict whether breast cancer will recur and which drugs may work best in specific patients. With this award, supported by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Stearns will test a novel compound, which affects how DNA is wrapped in tight coils, on women with newly diagnosed breast cancer.William Matsui, M.D., assistant professor of oncology has been awarded a Career Development Award, which is geared to young faculty members with a focus on clinical research. His recent discovery of the cell likely to be responsible for the development of multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow that destroys bone tissue, may lead to new therapies designed for long-term cure of the disease. Matsui joined the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in 2001. The award is sponsored by Genentech BioOncology.
# # #
Quote for Vered Stearns:
"It is a tremendous honor to receive the first ACRA award. My career is dedicated to helping women survive breast cancer, trying to determine whether the disease may come back and what drugs may work best in certain patients. Awards like this help push laboratory findings into clinical research where some of the most significant advances in cancer research have been made."
