November 12, 2007

SIU Med School Receives Two National Cancer Institute Grants

A research scientist at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield has been awarded two five-year federal grants from the National Cancer Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health.  These grants will study genes that suppress the spread of cancer in the body.  Kounosuke Watabe, Ph.D., professor of medical microbiology, immunology and cell biology, is the principal investigator for the projects.  He also is a member of the SimmonsCooper Cancer Institute at SIU.

One grant will study the gene, KAI1, which suppresses the metastasis of tumors in the body.  The total budget for the grant is $1,013,008.  The second grant will study the gene, Drg 1, which suppresses metastasis of prostate and breast cancers.  The total budget for the grant is $1,036,128.

Both the KAI1 and Drg 1 genes prevent cancer tumors from spreading to other organs in the body.  When these genes have broken down or lost their function in cancer patients, they no longer provide protection, allowing the cancer to spread.  Both studies will explore how and why the genes become unable to suppress cancer metastases.  The research also will look at ways to make a drug that mimics the genes and perhaps prevent the spread of cancer.

Co-investigators for the grants are Yin-Yuan Mo, Ph.D., associate professor of medical microbiology, immunology and cell biology, and Vickram Ramkumar, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmacology.  Both are also members of the SimmonsCooper Cancer Institute at SIU.  Researchers at the Red Cross Hospital in Japan are collaborating on the project.

This is the fourteenth national grant awarded for Watabe’s research.  He previously has been funded for research focused on prostate and breast cancers.  His research, which totals more than $4 million, has been funded for more than 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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