2011 Mentored Investigator Grant Recipient — Sharmistha Sarkar, PhD
Project Summary
Detection of ovarian cancer before it progresses to late stage disease is a major challenge for ovarian cancer researchers. When ovarian cancer is detected early, it has a high cure rate. But unfortunately, the majority of ovarian cancer is found after the disease has spread and the survival rate plummets. In this study, Dr. Sarkar will assess whether a certain protein might be a possible marker to detect early stage ovarian cancer. The protein is expressed at high levels in both early and late stage disease. Also, reducing the level of this protein makes the cancer cells less aggressive. Dr. Sarkar plans to elucidate how excess levels of the protein make the cancer cells more aggressive. She also aims to design new assays to test inhibitors of this protein as a possible treatment for later disease, since the protein is also highly expressed in late cancers.
This Ann Schreiber Program of Excellence grant is supported by a grant from the S. L. Gimbel Foundation, the Delaware Ovarian Cancer Foundation, and Ovarian Cycle.