7 Indian American Scientists Awarded for Cancer Research

7 Indian American Scientists Awarded for Cancer Research

The Society of Asian American Scientists in Cancer Research recently presented awards to seven Indian American doctors for their outstanding contributions to cancer research.

The seven scientists—Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Dr. Addanki Pratap Kumar, Dr. Pinku Mukherjee, Dr. Nihal Ahmad, Dr. Eri S. Srivatsan, Dr. Rajeev Kumar Agarwal and Dr. Anil Kumar Jaiswal—presented their original research work at the meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research at the San Diego Convention Center here from April 5 to 9.

The awards were presented by SAASCR president Dr. Rajvir Dahiya at a ceremony April 6.

Gupta is the Carter Kissell Endowed Chair in Urologic Oncology and research director in the Department of Urology at Case Western Reserve University and The Urology Institute at the University Hospitals Case Medical Center.

In basic research his focus is to understand the risk factors and mechanisms of prostatic and bladder diseases and develop appropriate biomarkers for early detection and prognosis.

Kumar is a tenured professor in the Department of Urology with cross appointment in the Departments of Pharmacology and Molecular Medicine in the School of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

A seminal discovery from Kumar’s laboratory regarding the ability of a bark extract to prevent prostate tumor development in pre-clinical animal model led to a clinical trial to test the ability of the extract to potentiate radiation and surgery regimens for prostate cancer patients.

Mukherjee is an Irwin Belk and Oliver Smithies Endowed Professor for Cancer Research at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She has a patent issued and 12 others pending for the development of a new antibody that has applications in molecular diagnostics and anti-cancer therapeutics.

Ahmad is a Nelson M. Hagan Endowed Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

His research is focused on two major lines of investigation: mechanism of cancer development and identification of molecular targets for intervention; and chemoprevention and experimental therapeutics of cancer.

Srivatsan is a professor of surgery at the University of California Los Angeles, David Geffen School of Medicine. He is working on various therapeutic agents for the treatment of cervical and another HPV associated cancer.

With the help of UCLA students, he started a nonprofit organization, Project RISHI, at UCLA in 2005, which now has chapters in all the UC campuses and in Northwestern and Harvard universities. Each of these chapters has adopted a village in India for improving health care.

Agarwal is a program director in the Translational Research Program of the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health. Since 2006, Agarwal has been serving the cancer community in various capacities ranging from initial discussion with investigators till the submission of their proposals and from award to completion of the funding cycle.

Jaiswal is a professor of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, University of Maryland School of Medicine, where he is also the director of the Graduate Program in Molecular and Mechanistic Toxicology.

Jaiswal has made several discoveries that have significantly increased our understanding of cellular responses to environmental and synthetic chemicals and radiations, oxidative stress signaling, cell survival, cell death and molecular carcinogenesis.