Graduate Student Awarded CPRIT 2020 Predoctoral Training Fellowship (Bishop Lab)
Congratulations to Pramiti Mukhopadhyay, Graduate Research Assistant in Alexander J. R. Bishop DPhil lab, on recently being awarded a CPRIT 2020 Predoctoral Training Fellowship. This valuable funding will help Ms. Mukhopadhyay continue her Ewing sarcoma research under the supervision of Dr. Bishop.
Pramiti’s accepted proposal for CPRIT 2020 Predoctoral Training Fellowship will focus on the following:
“Ewing sarcoma (EwS) is a pediatric cancer of the bone with no targeted therapy. The Bishop lab previously demonstrated that the translocation that drives this disease, EWSR1-FLI1, dysregulates transcription processes causing the accumulation of structures in the DNA called “R-loops”. R-loops are DNA: RNA hybrid structures are known to be involved in the cellular processes of replication stress and transcription regulation. Yet the temporal distribution of R-loops across phases of the cell cycle and during differentiation, particularly in the context of EwS and variable EWSR1-FLI1 expression, remains to be delineated. Examining how R-loops are coordinated with replication and their functional role in controlling differentiation programs is crucial to understanding how these structures can allow EwS cells to maintain viability under genotoxic stress. This proposal is aimed at investigating how “physiological” R-loops are resolved to maintain genomic integrity in EwS while in a dedifferentiated state and whether they offer a novel therapeutic target that can be leveraged in future preclinical work.”
About the Bishop Lab:
The interest of our lab is to identify and understand the mechanisms of damage survival. People who inherit a deficiency in damage response are predisposed to develop cancer, usually as children or young adolescents. Further, most cancer treatments are based on damaging cancer cells, so understanding why a chemotherapy works and for which patients should lead to more effective and less toxic targeted treatments, tailored to specific genetic defects of a cancer that will increase the cure rate and improve quality of life for cancer survivors.
About the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute (Greehey CCRI):
Since 2004, the Children’s Cancer Research Institute’s mission has been to advance scientific knowledge relevant to childhood cancer, contribute to the understanding of causes of childhood cancer, and accelerate the translation of knowledge into novel therapies. The Greehey Institute is an organized research unit within The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, also referred to as UT Health San Antonio. UT Health San Antonio’s mission is to make lives better through excellence in education, research, health care, and community engagement.
About Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT)
CPRIT’s goal is to expedite innovation in cancer research and product development and enhance access to evidence-based prevention programs throughout the state.
Since 2004, UT Health San Antonio, Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute’s (Greehey CCRI) mission has been to advance scientific knowledge relevant to childhood cancer, contribute to understanding its causes, and accelerate the translation of knowledge into novel therapies. Greehey CCRI strives to have a national and global impact on childhood cancer by discovering, developing, and disseminating new scientific knowledge. Our mission consists of three key areas — research, clinical, and education.
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