A University of Colorado at Boulder researcher has been awarded a prestigious Damon Runyon postdoctoral fellowship by the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation in New York.
Morgan Tucker, a postdoctoral fellow in the molecular, cellular and developmental biology department, was one of only 20 researchers nationwide to be awarded a Damon Runyon postdoctoral fellowship in 2002. He will receive $128,500 over the three-year fellowship. Tucker received his doctorate from the University of Arizona.
Tucker is being sponsored by MCD biology Professor Min Han, who is a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator involved in cancer research.
The 20 award recipients are outstanding young scientists conducting theoretical and experimental research relevant to the study of cancer and the search for cancer causes, mechanisms, therapies and prevention, according to Damon Runyon spokesperson Clare Cahill. Their research is carried out at major research centers under the sponsorship of some of the nation's leading scientists.
Tucker is studying cancer development in the genes of a tiny nematode known as C. elegans, which has a number of genes that are analogous to human genes. The researchers are conducting genetic screening in the eyelash-sized worm, looking at cell-to-cell communication in cancer-causing cell pathways.
A cascade of biological events begins when external signals activate proteins inside a cell, which activate additional proteins and eventually lead to activity in chromosomes in the cell nucleus. Such cascades eventually program cells to differentiate into specific cell types for particular organs of the body.
"If something goes wrong in a signaling pathway, some cells may not get the proper development instructions from adjacent cells and begin to multiply," said Tucker. This is one of multiple ways cancer can begin, he said.
In 2000, Jeffrey Mandell from the University of California-San Diego was one of 24 researchers nationwide to be awarded a Damon Runyon postdoctoral fellowship. A postdoctoral fellow in CU-Boulder's chemistry and biochemistry department, Mandel was sponsored by Thomas Cech, president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a distinguished professor at the University of Colorado.