Scientists Win Grant for Meso Research
A group of research scientists led by Dr. Michele Carbone of University of Hawaii’s John A. Burns School of Medicine has been awarded the 2008 Landon Foundation-AACR Innovator Award for International Collaboration in Cancer Research, a two-year, $100,000 grant to support the work of promising asbestos cancer researchers.
According to an article in the Honolulu Advertiser, Carbone’s team of experts in genetics, thoracic oncology, geology and pathology has discovered a unique mesothelioma epidemic in three Turkish villages. They have demonstrated that the epidemic is caused by an interaction between a human gene and the environment.
A University of Hawaii news release said Carbone and colleagues have identified that exposure to the mineral fiber erionite is the suspected cause of the epidemic. The researchers will use the AACR Innovator grant to identify the predisposing gene or genes for mesothelioma among this ethnic group and map the genetic risk factors by genetic linkage studies. Mesothelioma is an asbestos-related cancer that attacks the linings that cover the body’s internal organs, such as the lungs, heart, and abdomen.
Also part of the study were Haining Yang, Ph.D., of the University of Hawaii; Nancy Cox, Ph.D., and Ian Steele, Ph.D., University of Chicago; Harvey Pass, M.D., NYU School of Medicine and Clinical Cancer Center; Joseph Testa, Ph.D., Fox Chase Cancer Center; Y. Izzetin Baris, M.D., University of Hacettepe in Ankara, Turkey; A. Umran Dogan, Ph.D., University of Iowa; and Salih Emri, M.D., and Murat Tuncer, M.D., Hacettepe University School of Medicine in Ankara, Turkey.