November 07, 2023
The University of Kansas Cancer Center announced its 2023 recipients of the Director’s Awards, which honors individuals who have made noteworthy contributions to the cancer center’s mission, Pilot Awards, which funds promising research undertaken by cancer center members and Travel Awards, which supports travel to/from scientific conferences.
Recipients were announced at the cancer center’s annual Research Week, which celebrates research led by cancer center members.
Director’s Award Recipients
Civic Leadership and Philanthropy – Sunderland Foundation
Clinical Trial Accrual – Anup Kasi, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Medical Oncology
Community Clinical Trial Accrual - Carolyn Savioz, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Radiation Oncology
Young Scientist – David Akhavan, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Radiation Oncology
William Jewell Team Science – National Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) team; Gary Doolittle, MD & Priyanka Sharma, MD, Multi-Principal Investigators
Closing Disparities – Lisa Harlan-Williams, PhD, Assistant Director, Administration and Education; Director, Accelerate Cancer Education program
Basic Science – Bret Freudenthal, PhD, Associate Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Clinical Science – Ajay Bansal, MD, Associate Professor, Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Motility
Outstanding Staff – Susan Harp, Senior Director, Grant Development and Research Resources
Mentoring – Ronald Chen, MD, MPH, FASCO, FASTRO, Chair, Radiation Oncology; Associate Director, Health Equity
Pilot Project Recipients
Awardees receive approximately $50,000 in funding.
Yanming Li, PhD, Assistant Professor, Biostatistics & Data Science; Dinesh Pal Mudaranthakam, PhD, Assistant Professor, Biostatistics & Data Science | Integrating genomic, medical imaging, and electronic health record data using multimodal federated learning
Kristy Brown, PhD, Co-leader, Cancer Prevention and Control research program, Associate Professor, Cell Biology and Physiology | Heterozygous loss of BRCA predisposes to metabolic dysfunction
Stefan Bossmann, PhD, Chair, Cancer Biology; Prasad Dandawate, PhD, Assistant Professor, Cancer Biology | Novel Drug-Nanosponge conjugates to inhibit neuronal signaling to reduce pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) progression
Michael VanSaun, PhD, Assistant Professor, Cancer Biology | Reprogramming adipocytes to suppress PDAC
Travel Award Recipients
Recipients receive support to attend conferences and/or scientific meetings.
PIVOT Speaker Awardees
Each recipient receives a $600 travel award.
Hyunjoon Kim | “TLR7/8 Agonist-Nanoparticles for NK Cell Immunotherapy”
Sohini Samaddar | “A Prospective registry of patients at risk for inherited and sporadic gastrointestinal cancers for understanding disease progression and development of novel diagnostics and therapeutics”
Zhe Yang | “Blocking interactions between cancer stem cell and immune-suppressive barrier through countering MIF”
Student Poster Travel Awards
1st Place ($1,000): Harmony Saunders | “O-GlcNAcylation of progesterone receptor promotes mammary tumorigenesis”
2nd Place ($500): Eilidh Chowanec | “Progesterone promotes immunosuppression in the mammary gland through regulatory T cell activity”
3rd Place ($300): Aditi Rastogi | “Epithelial/stromal cross talks that induce malignant transition of human ductal carcinoma in situ”
Trainee Poster Travel Awards
1st Place ($1,000): Mrinalini Bhosale | “p53 genetic sensor system to identify novel mutant p53 reactivators”
2nd Place ($500): Fang Tao | “The Role of Stem-Like T Cells in Anti-Cancer Immunosurveilance Against Therapy-Resistant Pediatric Cancer”
3rd Place ($300): Luis Arteaga-Blanco | “Omics profiling and biological function of plasma-derived extracellular vesicles in colorectal cancer”
Jr. Faculty Poster Travel Awards
1st Place ($1,000): Vivekanand Yadav | “Therapeutic targeting of prenatal pontine ID1 signaling in diffuse midline glioma”
2nd Place ($500): Taeju Park | “Rational design of peptides targeting Crk and CrkL to inhibit tumor cell migration”
3rd Place ($300): Maged Zeineldin | “The interactions between genetic, epigenetic, and metabolic landscapes reveal tumor vulnerabilities in neuroblastoma”