Three scientists who are researching novel approaches to the treatment of cancer have been named the 2023 recipients of the Damon Runyon Physician-Scientist Training Award: Nicole M. Cruz, MD; Mounica Vallurupalli, MD; and Nina Weichert-Leahey, MD. The awardees were selected through a highly competitive and rigorous process by a scientific committee consisting of leading cancer researchers who are themselves physician-scientists.
To help increase the number of physician-scientists, the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation created the Damon Runyon Physician-Scientist Training Award, which provides physicians who have completed clinical specialty fellowship training the opportunity to gain the skills and experience needed to become leaders in translational and clinical research.
Damon Runyon seeks to address the financial disincentives that often deter physicians from pursuing a research career by providing considerably higher funding than most research fellowships—$100,000 in the first year, with increases of $10,000 per year over the next 3 years. It will also retire up to $100,000 of any medical school debt still owed by an award recipient. Since its launch in 2015, the program has funded 38 new physician-scientists from across a range of disciplines.
2023 Award Recipients
Dr. Cruz, with mentor Robert G. Roeder, PhD, at The Rockefeller University, New York (The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research Physician-Scientist). Dr. Cruz will use molecular biology, epigenetic, and biochemistry approaches to describe the precise molecular mechanism by which the protein KMT2D regulates gene expression in mixed-lineage leukemia–rearranged acute myeloid leukemia. Her work will provide insight into potentially targetable proteins for this aggressive blood cancer.
Dr. Vallurupalli, with mentor Todd R. Golub, MD, at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston (David M. Livingston, MD, Physician-Scientist). Dr. Vallurupalli will use genome-editing technologies to generate and characterize SF3B1-mutant models in human adult blood stem cells. She will also screen for other genetic factors that may influence the outcome of SF3B1 mutations. Her goal is to identify previously unrecognized therapeutic targets for treating splicing factor–mutated blood cancers.
Dr. Weichert-Leahey, with mentor A. Thomas Look, MD, at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston.
Children with high-risk neuroblastoma often have poor prognoses despite intense treatment, underscoring the need for new treatments to improve long-term outcomes. Retinoic acid helps neuroblastoma cells mature into normal cells; however, this process is entirely reversible once the retinoic acid is withdrawn. If this differentiating effect could be made permanent with the addition of a second drug, a combination treatment with retinoic acid could become a novel method of preventing patient relapse. Dr. Weichert-Leahey discovered that a drug called PF-9363 accentuated the effects of retinoic acid in neuroblastoma the most. She will now study how PF-9363 functions, alone and together with retinoic acid, both in cells and patient-derived neuroblastoma models in mice.
