SARC Announces 2009 Career Development Award Recipients

Michigan - SARC is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2009 SARC Career Development Award are Sandra Strauss, MD, PhD, Senior Clinical Researcher at the University College London and Joseph Ludwig, MD and Assistant Professor at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. 

Dr. Strauss’s research focuses on the use of cells grown under anchorage-independent conditions as a model of micrometastatic disease.  She will use this model to investigate and characterize mechanisms osteosarcoma cells utilize to suppress anoikis (detachment-induced apoptosis).

Dr. Ludwig’s research focuses on understanding mechanisms of acquired resistance following initial sensitivity to IGFIR Ab therapy in Ewing’s sarcoma.  He has three major aims for his project:  1) Determine if acquired IGFIR resistance occurs through a redundant signaling cascade independent of continued antibody/drug-induced IGFI-R dysfunction; 2) Identify the extent to which predominant mechanisms of IGFI-R resistance observed in vitro accurately reflects clinical mechanisms of de novo and acquired resistance; 3) Evaluate if resistance to IGFI-R –targeted therapy, via a shift in oncogene dependence upon c-kit, EGFR, PDGFR, or integrins, induces collateral sensitivity in those pathways.

SARC is pleased to be able to support both Dr. Strauss and Dr. Ludwig’s work in sarcoma and help them as they begin their career as researchers.  Congratulations to the awardees and thank you to those who submitted proposals.

To read more about Career Development Awards for 2010, please click here: http://www.sarctrials.org/public/press88.aspx