In This Section      
 

Johns Hopkins Researchers Win Top Prizes, Honors at Cancer Research Meeting - 04/07/2017

Johns Hopkins Researchers Win Top Prizes, Honors at Cancer Research Meeting

Release Date: April 7, 2017
Jaffee
Elizabeth Jaffee, M.D.
Credit: Johns Hopkins Medicine

Share Fast Facts

  • Cancer Researchers Win Top Awards at #AACR17 meeting - Click to Tweet

Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers received the following honors and awards at the 2017 annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, April 1-5 in Washington, D.C.

SCIENTIST ELIZABETH JAFFEE NAMED PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR CANCER RESEARCH

Cancer immunology expert Elizabeth Jaffee, M.D., has been named president-elect of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). She will begin her one-year term in April 2018. Jaffee is deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and associate director of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg ?Kimmel Institute. The American Association for Cancer Research is the world’s oldest and largest professional organization for cancer researchers. Jaffee also chairs the National Cancer Advisory Board for the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and co-chairs the NCI Blue Ribbon Panel for the National Cancer Moonshot Initiative.

JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHERS WIN AACR TEAM SCIENCE AWARD FOR ‘LIQUID BIOPSY’ DISCOVERIES

For the third time since 2013, a team of Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers has won the Team Science award from AACR. The award honors their innovations in developing blood tests, or “liquid biopsies,” for cancer. Previously, Johns Hopkins scientists won the Team Science award for innovations in brain cancer research and pancreatic cancer genome sequencing. Scientists included in this year’s award are: Luis A. Diaz, Nishant Agrawal, Chetan Bettegowda, Frank Diehl, Peter Gibbs, Stanley R. Hamilton, Ralph H. Hruban, Hartmut Juhl, Isaac Kinde, Kenneth Kinzler, Martin Nowak, Nickolas Papadopoulos, David Sidransky, Jeanne Tie, Victor E. Velculescu and Bert Vogelstein.

$12 MILLION STAND UP TO CANCER ‘DREAM TEAM’ FOR COLORECTAL CANCER INCLUDES JOHNS HOPKINS SCIENTISTS

Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center are among a “Dream Team” that will share in $12 million in research funding from Stand Up to Cancer, a nonprofit organization that is part of the Entertainment Industry Foundation. The research funds will be used to explore immunotherapy and other treatments for colorectal cancer. “We need to widen access to clinical trials and broaden the effectiveness of immunotherapy and other treatments for colorectal cancer,” says Nilofer Azad, M.D., associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. Azad will serve as the Dream Team principal for Johns Hopkins researchers working in the group, including Kimmel Cancer Center oncologists Dung Le and Daniel Laheru. The Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center is home to the Bloomberg ?Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. 

JOHNS HOPKINS STUDENT WINS TOP PRIZE FOR RESEARCH ON LETHAL BRAIN TUMORS IN CHILDREN

Johns Hopkins undergraduate student Sabrina Wang won first place in a competition among 125 students for her research on a lethal type of pediatric brain tumor called atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumors (AT/RT), the most common brain tumor type in infants. The award was presented at the AACR 2017 annual meeting in Washington, D.C., on April 2. Wang found that a subset of AT/RT tumors expresses a gene called MYC. Research by Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center experts has shown that cancers cells expressing this gene can alter the way they process nutrients as an energy source. In cell culture studies, Wang used so-called glutamine-inhibiting drugs to block the metabolism processes of AT/RT cells. In mice, glutamine-inhibiting drugs doubled the survival of mice implanted with AT/RT brain tumors that express MYC compared with mice implanted with tumors that don't express the gene. Wang works in the laboratory of Kimmel Cancer Center pediatric oncologist Eric Raabe, M.D.,Ph.D.