Anery Patel, M.B.B.S., is the first recipient of the UNMC Department of Internal Medicine Scientist Development Award.
Dr. Patel, a third-year fellow in the division of diabetes, endocrinology and metabolism, will receive support for one year and dedicate 75 percent of her time to research, career development and other scholarly activities.
She submitted a proposal titled “BMX-001 as a Radio-Protector Agent for Untoward Effects of Radioactive Iodine Treatment in Thyroid Cancer.”
In discussing her project, Dr. Patel notes that the majority of persons treated for thyroid cancer with radioactive iodine (RAI) attain remission and therapy has no impact on their life expectancy. However, the therapy can result in acute and chronic complications and adversely impact quality of life for those patients.
“Currently there are no approved radio-protector agents that can be used in conjunction with RAI to reduce complications in thyroid cancer therapy,” Dr. Patel said.
She plans to test her hypothesis.
“The proposal will provide pre-clinical data determining if BMX-001 can be used with RAI therapy in thyroid cancer,” she said.
Whitney Goldner, M.D., associate professor in the division, serves as Dr. Patel’s primary mentor for the grant, overseeing her training and research experience. Dr. Goldner has more than 10 years of experience in endocrinology and specializes in thyroid disease and thyroid cancer. She developed the UNMC Thyroid Tumor and Cancer Collaborative Registry, which has grown into a multi-institutional registry with both bioinformatics and biospecimens.
Secondary mentor Rebecca Oberley-Deegan, Ph.D., assistant professor, biochemistry and molecular biology, is doing research on how MnTE-2-PyP acts as a radio-protector and anti-tumor agent. She has interest in other radio-protective agents.
The Department of Internal Medicine accepted applications for its first Scientist Development Award in January. The award is designed to support promising Department of Internal Medicine faculty candidates making the transition from fellowship training into an initial academic appointment at UNMC.
It provides support during the initial faculty year for a mentored research project. Applicants may or may not have had significant previous research experience, but plan to incorporate research into their career. One award will be given per year for an amount of up to $100,000 for support as well as research and/or education costs.
“This award mechanism will help us to grow the next generation of internal medicine investigators at UNMC,” said Ted Mikuls, M.D., vice chair of research for the department. “We are excited to have Dr. Patel as our initial recipient.”