The V Foundation
$100,000 V Foundation Scholar Grant awarded in Delta Chi’s name! During the opening events of the 56th International Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, Delta Chi presented The V Foundation with a check in the amount of $101,963.00. The check represented the efforts of Delta Chi chapters, colonies, and alumni in the pursuit of fulfilling the Fraternity’s pledge to donate $100,000 to The V Foundation by the 2008 Convention. Delta Chi’s efforts were a huge success, and as a result, The V Foundation named a V Foundation Scholar grant in the Fraternity’s name for 2008. What follows is a description of the grant and the recipient of the 2008 Delta Chi Scholar grant. The V Foundation for Cancer Research announced in mid-October that it had awarded the 2008 V Scholar grants and Translational grants to elite researchers across the United States. The V Scholars are the cornerstone of The V Foundation’s grant program, funding young investigators as they initiate their research. Translational grants transform basic scientific discoveries into clinical applications such as new diagnostics and treatments. The contribution of funding to these research initiatives continuously brings science steps closer to eradicating this horrible disease. The V Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board selects each V Scholar through a competitive process. The V Scholar grants are designed to identify, retain and further the careers of young investigators. This unique funding process provides the essential funds to a facility, earmarked for an individual doctor, allowing the V Scholar to decide how best to use these funds in his or her research project. “Each of the more than 50 National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Centers nominates their most outstanding new faculty member as a candidate, and the V Foundation Advisory Committee then selects the most promising 15 young investigators as V Scholars,” said Robert C. Bast, Jr., M.D., Vice President for Translational Research at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board. “This is an extraordinary group who will have a major impact on cancer over the next decades.”
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The Delta Chi Scholar Grant went to Sendurai Mani, Ph.D., 1998 Indian Institute of Science; The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Department of Molecular Pathology. Mani’s research Interests include the role of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and the stem-like cells generated by EMT in cancer invasion and metastasis, and the role of FOXC2 in EMT, stem cells and cancer metastasis. Greater than 80% of all tumors are carcinomas, which are derived in epithelial tissues. During the initial stages of carcinogenesis, the cancer cells are confined to the primary site by the continued expression of epithelial cell-cell adhesion molecules and an intact basal lamina. It is known that, as carcinomas progress, a few cancer cells in the primary tumor reactivate an embryonic program, known as epithelialmesenchymal transition (EMT). Through EMT, these cells gain the mesenchymal-like traits necessary to escape these confinements and metastasize. Previously, Dr. Mani identified several key embryonic transcription factors, including Twist and FOXC2 that regulate both EMT and breast cancer metastasis. In a more recent study, he discovered that human mammary epithelial cells forced to undergo EMT have many properties of stem cells. These findings suggests that EMT not only generates cancer cells with the ability to disseminate to distant organs but also endows these cells with the stem cell properties that seem necessary for the initiation of secondary tumors following dissemination. Presently, his laboratory is interested in further delineating the role that EMT/CSCs plays during cancer metastasis as well as the role of a number of these EMT-associated transcription factors during cancer metastases. To answer these critical questions, Dr. Mani and his team are using a variety of in vitro and in vivo tumor models as well as tissue-specific, inducible, transgenic mouse models. The main goal of the research laboratory is the facilitation of the development of improved prognostic and therapeutic tools targeting cancer metastasis.
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Delta Chi | Quarterly | Winter 2009 21
