For immediate useNov. 21, 1997 -- No. 879

Cancer center selects Lineberger fellows

By SUZANNE WOOD
UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center

CHAPEL HILL -- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center recently presented its Lineberger Fellows Award to graduate students Jonelle K. Drugan, Li-Fen Lee and Irene Zohn.

Fellows receive a $3,000 supplementary stipend to recognize the excellence of their research activities. They were selected by the center's Program Planning Committee and honored at a recent meeting of the center's Board of Visitors, which started the awards in the 1987 to encourage promising new cancer researchers. Program funding comes from Best Distributing Co. in Goldsboro.

Drugan works in the lab of Dr. Sharon Campbell, assistant professor of biochemistry and biophysics and a member of the center's molecular therapeutics program. She studies cell growth and the signals that trigger these normal cellular processes. Using her findings of specific protein interactions in normal cell growth, she hopes to understand better how this process can go awry, allowing the unchecked growth that characterizes cancer. Such understanding could lead to the design of new cancer drugs.

Lee is a graduate student in the lab of Dr. Jenny Ting, professor of microbiology and immunology and leader of the cancer center's immunology program. They are studying Taxol, a drug used to treat ovarian and breast cancers. Taxol works by binding to cellular/structural proteins and therefore prevents rapidly growing cells like cancer cells from dividing. Lee has discovered additional novel mechanism by which Taxol is useful in treating ovarian cancer and hopes to translate these laboratory findings into improved cancer therapy.

A graduate student in the lab of Dr. Channing Der, professor of pharmacology and a member of the center's molecular therapeutics program, Zohn studies a type of cellular receptor, which when not in its typical form can contribute to the development of cancer. She has defined the signaling pathways that allow these receptors to promote cancer development. Targeting components in these signaling pathways may serve as useful directions for the development of new anti-cancer drugs.

The UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center's mission is to reduce cancer occurrence and death in North Carolina and the nation through research, treatment, training and outreach. The center is one of 31 comprehensive cancer centers designated by the National Cancer Institute.

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Lineberger contact: Dianne Shaw, 919-966-5905

News Services print contact: Karen Stinneford