Human Biology researcher wins American Association for Cancer Research scholar award

Dr. Anne Grosse-Wilde of the Human Biology Division has won a Scholar-in-Training award from the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and Merck Co., Inc. Grosse-Wilde was selected based on the scientific excellence of an abstract she will present at the 2006 AACR annual meeting next month in Washington, D.C. Fewer than 10 percent of applicants were chosen for the award, which includes a stipend to help defray the conference costs.

Grosse-Wilde, a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Chris Kemp's lab, studies mice lacking a protein called TRAIL-receptor, which can induce death in cancer cells but not in normal cells. Her research indicates that mice with skin tumors lacking the TRAIL-receptor protein develop significantly more lymph-node metastases, suggesting that triggering this protein could inhibit metastases.