New Pilot Project Program grants from Women's Health Research at Yale will focus on two fundamental and important areas of women's health: breast cancer, the second leading cause of cancer mortality among women; and obesity, which in women leads to higher rates of serious secondary health problems including diabetes and heart disease.
"As with all of the studies we have funded, the investigations by this year's awardees focus on some of the most relevant health concerns that women face. Just as importantly, these investigations will continue our program's longstanding practice of generating new scientific knowledge with the aim of providing practical benefits to improve the well-being of women," said Carolyn M. Mazure, director of Women's Health Research at Yale.
The 2011 Women's Health Research at Yale pilot grant recipients are:
- Anthony J. Koleske, associate professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, and Titus J. Boggon, assistant professor of pharmacology. These collaborators will take initial steps toward developing medications to treat metastasis, the spread of breast cancer; metastasis is the primary cause of death from this disease. This interdisciplinary team plans to identify small molecule compounds that disrupt the interaction of three proteins which form a "control switch" in breast cancer cells. When turned on, this switch enables breast cancer cells to invade surrounding tissues and form secondary tumors. Identifying compounds that disrupt the formation of this switch will be a first step toward generating a new class of drugs to limit the spread of breast cancer cells. Currently, there are no drugs that selectively target breast cancer metastasis. Koleske and Boggon envision developing these drugs for use after surgically removing primary tumors, with the aim of improving long-term survival outcomes. Yale Cancer Center is co-funding this investigation.
- Matthew S. Rodeheffer, assistant professor of comparative medicine and of molecular, cellular and developmental biology. Rodeheffer's study is designed to understand the cell mechanisms that control white adipose tissue mass in women at the onset of diet-induced obesity. Determining these mechanisms is highly relevant to everyone's health, but particularly important to women because they suffer greater obesity-related health consequences, including diabetes and heart disease. Recently, rates of obesity among U.S. women aged 20-34 years old have been increasing more rapidly than in any other age group for women or men. While most previous studies of how fat deposits are regulated at the cellular level have used male animal models and inferred results for females, this study will use female animal models. Therefore the investigation has the potential to begin development of gender-specific therapies for the treatment of obesity and significantly alter the assessment of risk of developing obesity-related health problems.
With original funding from the Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation, Women's Health Research at Yale was founded in 1998 to address historic gender disparities in medical research by initiating and supporting innovative studies on women's health and gender differences in health. The program has awarded more than $4 million in pilot grants to more than 60 Yale investigators who have generated nearly $47 million in new external funding to further their research-an enormous return on investment. For more information, visit www.yalewhr.org.