2012 OSB1 Grants
Ravi Anchoori, PhD, is a Research Associate in the Department of Oncology at Johns Hopkins University where he is working on the interface of Chemistry and Biology to decipher the molecular mechanisms involved in regulated protein degradation. Dr. Anchoori developed a novel class of proteasome inhibitor and is exploring the effect of inhibiting the activity of the proteasome subunit ADRM1 that is specifically amplified in ovarian cancer.
Elisabetta Kuhn, MD, is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She has dedicated her research career to ovarian cancer research with the hope of applying basic studies to improve clinical care of ovarian cancer patients. Dr. Kuhn will study laminin, a protein that is upregulated in ovarian cancer. She will characterize laminin as a biomarker for serous tubal intraepithelial carcinoma, a putative precursor of ovarian serous cancer. Moreover, she will determine its biological functions in promoting cell growth and dissemination of precursor cells to ovary and other peritoneal tissues during tumor progression.
Leonel Maldonado, MD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at Johns Hopkins, will study the presence and function of Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) in subject-matched primary ovarian tumors and peripheral blood at the time of primary debulking surgery to determine whether the presence of MDSCs predicts response to standard platinum-taxol chemotherapy, and to determine whether inhibiting MDSC function can enhance effector T-cell function.
Ana Isabel Tergas, MD, MPH, a postdoctoral clinical fellow in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at Johns Hopkins, will explore barriers to health care faced by a diverse group of ovarian cancer patients who underwent treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and make recommendations for interventions aimed at mitigating these barriers.
