Four UAMS Scientists Win Grants to Study Breast Cancer

By Marty Trieschmann

Samantha Kendrick, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the UAMS College of Medicine, is the recipient of ABCRPs Investigator Award. The $250,000 award will fund Kendrick’s research project titled, “Impact of DNA structures on mutagenic enzymes in breast cancer.” She is a member of the Cancer Institute’s Cancer Biology Research Group and has co-authored more than 15 articles in scientific publications, including the American Journal of Hematology and the International Journal of Cancer.

Recipients of $50,000 ABCRP pilot awards are:

Jesus Delgado-Calle, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Physiology and Cell Biology in the College of Medicine. His research study is titled, “Pathological crosstalk between senescent osteocytes and breast cancer cells in bone metastasis.”

Ruud Dings, Ph.D.,  assistant professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology in the College of Medicine. His research project is titled, “The impact of antibiotic-induced dysbiosis on tertiary lymphoid structures in breast cancer.”

Yong-Moon (“Mark”) Park, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health. His study is titled, “Diet quality and epigenetic modifications in breast cancer development.”

In 1997, through Act 434, The Arkansas Breast Cancer Act, the Arkansas General Assembly authorized monies to, “support research efforts into the cause, cure, treatment, earlier detection and prevention of breast cancer,” through the creation of the Arkansas Breast Cancer Research Program (ABCRP).