University of Arizona Cancer Center researcher Samantha Kendrick, PhD, is one of the fastest-rising scientists in her field.
Lymphoma Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship award
Dr. Kendrick was awarded a 2013 Lymphoma Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship award to support her research of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).
The $105,000 grant will be used to support Dr. Kendrick's ongoing research to determine the occurrence and clinical implications of various mechanisms for BCL2 and MYC oncogene over-expression in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), the most commonly diagnosed version of lymphoma, in order to identify patients that would benefit from targeted therapy.
"The project is two-fold," Dr. Kendrick said. "We’re in the unique position to study high-risk patients, as well as to test new drugs that could target those key genes. This project takes us through the whole spectrum of identifying risk and trying to find a therapy for those patients."
This isn't Dr. Kendrick's first major honor, either. In 2010, she was named the Student Technology Innovation Award winner. She was the first female recipient among either faculty or student top honorees in the program’s history. The Technology Innovation Award is given annually in recognition of exemplary innovative achievements in translating original ideas from the laboratory to the marketplace.
Dr. Kendrick’s cancer research also led to a major discovery in the BIO5 lab of Laurence Hurley, PhD, of a new class of drug receptors and a lead compound. Dr. Kendrick’s dissertation project, chemo-sensitization by modulation of BCL2 expression, provides a new molecular target for treatment of cancers such as lymphomas that have become resistant to chemotherapy.