Luisa Escobar-Hoyos, MSc, PhD, Assistant Professor of Therapeutic Radiology and Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale, was awarded a New Innovator Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through its High-Risk, High-Reward Research Program. The award supports exceptionally creative early career investigators who propose innovative, high-impact projects in the biomedical, behavioral, or social sciences.
The award will support Dr. Escobar-Hoyos’ research project “Unleashing T-cell mediated anti-tumor responses through repair of altered RNA splicing and antigen mimicry recognition.” The goal is to understand the intrinsic mechanisms of gene expression and antigen recognition that either inhibit or promote T-cell activity against tumor cells and develop checkpoint immunotherapies and cancer vaccines to unleash the full cytotoxic activity of T cells. The long-term goal would be to develop checkpoint immunotherapies and cancer vaccines that overcome immune ignorance, escape, and suppression in solid tumors.
Dr. Escobar-Hoyos would like to recognize Natasha Pinto Medici (postdoc), Diana Martinez-Saucedo, PhD (postdoc), and Robert Tseng (MD student-computational scientist) from her lab who worked to gather the data for the grant. She would also like to thank Director of the Yale Gastrointestinal Cancer Biorepository, John Kunstman, MD, MHS, Assistant Professor of Surgery (Oncology), Joanna Hu (Research Associate), and the pancreatic cancer patients who provided their tumor samples which were crucial to generating preliminary data.
“The Yale Gastrointestinal Cancer Biorepository establishes the critical link between basic researchers like Dr. Escobar-Hoyos and clinician-researchers like myself, allowing scientists to access both archival and fresh cancer tissues,” said Dr. Kunstman.
Ms. Hu notes, “These samples are precious and fresh samples can be transferred to research staff within minutes following resection in some cases. This unique capability facilitated the groundbreaking work being done in the Escobar-Hoyos lab.” The High-Risk, High-Reward Research program catalyzes scientific discovery by supporting highly innovative research proposals that, due to their inherent risk, may struggle in the traditional peer review process despite their transformative potential. Program applicants are encouraged to think outside-the-box and to pursue trailblazing ideas in any area of research relevant to the NIH mission.