阿肯色医科大学两名癌症研究者获 NIH 逾500万美元资助：主攻T细胞疗法与DNA修复
位于阿肯色州普拉斯基县 Little Rock 市的阿肯色医科大学（UAMS）10月20日宣布，该校 Winthrop P. Rockefeller 癌症研究所两名研究者获得美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）五年期资助，合计逾500万美元。
助理教授 Brian Koss 获国家癌症研究所逾290万美元 R01 资助，研究如何让过继性T细胞疗法对实体瘤更有效：T细胞疗法对血液肿瘤疗效显著，但在实体瘤中T细胞会「耗竭」失去杀伤力，其团队此前发现的 RNF166 酶可能防止这种耗竭，有望让 CAR-T 细胞更持久地攻击实体瘤。Brian Koss 是阿肯色州首位 NIH 院长早期独立奖得主，2021年加盟 UAMS。
助理教授 Joonas Jämsén 获国家普通医学科学研究所逾210万美元资助，研究最严重的 DNA 双链断裂损伤的细胞修复机制及其失效致癌的原理；他2023年曾参与发现一条全新的 DNA 断裂修复通路。
研究所所长 Michael Birrer 表示，这两项竞争激烈的资助有望加深学界对癌症的理解并改进治疗。两人均为 UAMS 医学院生物化学与分子生物学系助理教授。
（来源：UAMS）
Two UAMS Cancer Researchers Win More Than $5 Million in NIH Awards: Work Targets T-Cell Therapy and DNA Repair
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas, announced on October 20 that two researchers at its Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute have received five-year awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) totaling more than $5 million.
Assistant professor Brian Koss received an R01 award of more than $2.9 million from the National Cancer Institute to study how to make adoptive T-cell therapy more effective against solid tumors. T-cell therapy works well against blood cancers, but in solid tumors the T cells become "exhausted" and lose their ability to kill cancer cells; his team's earlier work identified an enzyme, RNF166, that may prevent that exhaustion and help CAR T-cells attack solid tumors for longer. Koss, Arkansas' first recipient of the NIH Director's Early Independence Award, joined UAMS in 2021.
Assistant professor Joonas Jämsén received more than $2.1 million from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to study how cells repair the most serious form of DNA damage, double-strand breaks, and why failures in that process can lead to cancer. In 2023 he took part in discovering a previously unknown DNA break repair pathway.
Cancer Institute director Michael Birrer said the two highly competitive awards could deepen understanding of cancer and improve treatment. Both researchers are assistant professors in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
(Source: UAMS)
来源：UAMS
发布：GSM·美国（发布链接）
图片来源：阿肯色医科大学（UAMS）Little Rock 主校区航拍。摄影：Uams communications，Attribution 授权（Wikimedia Commons）
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