SIU Med School Receives Two Federal Grants

Research scientists at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield and Carbondale have been awarded two federal grants.

A three-year federal grant has been awarded by the United States Army to Kounosuke Watabe, Ph.D., professor of medical microbiology and immunology at SIU in Springfield, to study the tumor metastasis suppressor gene in prostate cancer. The total budget for the grant is $534,437. The study will look at how the primary tumor cells of prostate cancer spread to other parts of the body in mice. The research has important ramifications for developing new treatments for the metastasis of prostate cancer, which is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in men in the U.S.

Another federal grant has been received from the National Cancer Institute to Jodi Huggenvik, Ph.D., associate professor of physiology at the School of Medicine in Carbondale, to study tumor suppressors in prostate cancer. The total budget for the two-year grant is $219.266. The study is looking to identify two tumor suppressor genes in order to understand their function as tumor markers for prostate cancer diagnosis. The research could help provide more accurate diagnoses of prostate cancer. The grant is an expansion of a five-year $1.17 million grant Huggenvik received in 2001 to study tumor suppressors in pediatric cancers. Watabe is the lead co-principal investigator and Dr. Thomas Tarter, SIU associate professor of urology, is a co-principal investigator for the Springfield portion of the project. Michael Collard, Ph.D., associate professor of physiology, is a co-principal investigator for the Carbondale portion of the project.

Watabe has received ten national grants for cancer research. His previous research has focused on hepatitis. His research has been funded for 14 years by the National Institutes of Health, American Cancer Society, and American Lung Association for a total of $1,140,000.

Watabe joined the SIU faculty in Springfield in 1985. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Arizona in Tucson (1985). He earned his doctorate, master's and bachelor's degrees at Kyoto University in Japan (1981, 1978, 1976).

Huggenvik joined the SIU faculty in Carbondale in 1993. She held postdoctoral positions at the University of Washington in Seattle (1985-87), Vollum Institute of Advanced Biomedical Research in Portland, Oregon (1987-88), and at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (1988-91). She earned her doctorate at Washington State University in Pullman (1985) and her bachelor's at Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota (1979).

Collard joined the SIU faculty in 1993. He held postdoctoral positions at the Vollum Institute of Advanced Biomedical Research in Portland, Ore. (1987-89) and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (1989-91). He earned his doctorate at Washington State University in Pullman (1987) and his bachelor's at the University of Utah (1981).

Tarter joined the SIU faculty in 2001. He completed a three-year fellowship at the Population Council Center for Biomedical Research at Rockefeller University, New York City (1986). He is board certified in urology. He completed a residency in urology and in general surgery at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles (1996). Tarter earned his medical degree at Albany Medical College in New York (1990), his doctorate from the Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland (1983) and bachelor's at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon (1977).

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