Jackson Lab Scientist Wins $2.7 Million "Innovator" Award
Dr. Chengkai Dai will use the award to study a group of proteins that play a role in the development of cancer.
By Maine Public Broadcasting Network
10/01/10
A Jackson Laboratory scientist has received a $2.7 million grant to support his innovative cancer research over the next five years.
Lab officials say Dr. Chengkai Dai is one of the recipient of this year's National Institutes of Health's "New Innovator" Awards. Dai studies a family of proteins called heat shock proteins. The proteins normally protect healthy cells from environmental stress, but when cancer strikes, they protect cancer cells instead.
Dai says the award will allow him to research "some highly innovate ideas" related to the proteins. He says the research has the potential to alter our fundamental understanding of cancer biology and lead to new therapies. "I feel very honored to be among the very small group of talented young scientists who are receiving this award," Dai says in a statement.
The New Innovator Award program is designed to support the research ideas of unusually creative investigators early in their careers, Jackson Lab officials say.