Shannon Buckley, PhD, assistant professor of genetics, cell biology and anatomy, and Bryant England, MD, PhD, assistant professor of rheumatology, will be awarded this year’s Joseph P. and Harriet K. Gilmore Distinguished New Investigator Award.
The award will be presented at 9 a.m. this morning via Zoom. The event will include presentations by Drs. Buckley and England on their research.
Dr. Buckley said she was grateful for the award.
"It represents not only my work, but the work of all the hardworking dedicated lab members who have contributed to the research," she said.
Dr. England agreed.
"It’s an honor to receive this award with the many great researchers on campus and to be recognized among those who have received this award previously," he said. "This research is the product of the phenomenal mentors, dedicated team members and robust research resources that I’ve had the privilege to work with."
Dr. Buckley said her research goal is "to understand alterations in blood cells that contribute to the development of leukemia and lymphoma."
"Our lab strives to understand the role of mutated genes and aberrantly expressed proteins using primary patient samples and mouse models of disease," she said. "In addition, our work uses new technologies to identify novel proteins expressed in leukemia and lymphoma patients. We aim to gain understanding of disease initiation, progression and provide therapeutic targets for future drug discovery."
Dr. Buckley started her independent laboratory at UNMC in August 2015, using genomic and proteomic approaches in mantle cell lymphoma and acute myeloid samples to study molecular mechanisms regulating cell fate decisions.
Dr. Buckley’s work has demonstrated a key role of UBR5, which is mutated in approximately 18% of mantle cell lymphoma patients in maturation and activation of B cells. A future goal is to decipher the molecular mechanism of UBR5 in B cell activation and lymphoma.
Dr. England’s work is focused on improving the long-term outcomes for patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
"This means looking beyond how patients’ joints might be feeling three or six months down the road to understand how they are functioning, their longevity and the other medical conditions they may develop years later.
"Many long-term problems from rheumatoid arthritis result from the systemic nature of the disease, i.e. features of the disease beyond the joints. This may include developing lung disease, heart disease, cancer or even developing multiple chronic conditions, which is termed multimorbidity. To tackle these complications, my team performs research to identify how often these problems occur, develop new methods to better study these complications, determine the risk factors for developing these problems, discover novel blood markers that can predict these complications or tell us why these complications occurred, and evaluate the safety and effectiveness of different rheumatoid arthritis treatments in patients with these complications."
Congratulations, Drs. Buckley & England!