May 25, 2007                                                              

SIU Med School Receives Federal Grant

A faculty member at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield has been awarded a three-year federal grant from the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity to study the use of golden rod extract as a therapy for prostate cancer.  The total budget for the grant is $541,380.

The study will examine whether extract from the plant, golden rod, is effective in inhibiting the fatty acid synthase enzyme in prostate tumor so that it blocks the growth of the tumor.  Golden rod previously has been used to treat various urological diseases.  This study may lead to the development of new treatments for prostate cancer.

Kounosuke Watabe, Ph.D., professor of medical microbiology, immunology and cell biology, is the principal investigator for the project.  He also is a member of the SimmonsCooper Cancer Institute at SIU.

This is the twelfth national grant awarded for Watabe’s research.  He previously has been funded for research focused on hepatitis and prostate cancer.  His research, which totals more than $2 million, has been funded for 20 years by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, United States Army, American Cancer Society and American Lung Association.

Watabe joined SIU's faculty 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).

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