UNMC student selected as Early-career Hill Day participant

Kimiko Krieger, a graduate student fellow in the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases, was selected as one of 16 early-career cancer scientists from around the country to participate in Early-career Hill Day through the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). This marks the second straight year Krieger was selected to participate in the event.

Krieger works in the laboratory of Nick Woods, Ph.D., assistant professor and program director of proteomics and systems biology research in the Eppley Institute. The major focus of the lab is to discover novel regulatory mechanisms in the DNA damage response (DDR) network through proteomic profiling of protein-protein interactions. This approach is focused on discovering novel mechanisms in the DDR that can be exploited to develop and refine precision therapies in cancer.

Krieger and the other honorees traveled to Washington, D.C., on Feb. 28 to meet with more than 50 members of Congress and their staffs, representing 17 different states. They shared their experiences as cancer researchers and discussed the importance of continued bipartisan support for biomedical research through budget increases for the National Institutes of Health.

During the congressional visits, the early-career scientists also called on members of Congress to work in a bipartisan fashion with the White House to reach a two-year, bipartisan budget agreement that lifts the caps on nondefense, discretionary spending currently in place due to the Budget Control Act of 2011.

The scientists also thanked members of Congress for providing a $2 billion increase for the NIH in fiscal year 2019 and asked that funding for medical research remain a congressional priority with a $2.5 billion increase for the NIH in the next fiscal year.

In conjunction with the Hill Day on Feb. 28, the AACR invited early-career scientists around the country to participate in a National Day of Action by contacting their members of Congress via email or social media.

Federal funding for medical research is essential to continued progress against cancer and other diseases. NIH funding contributed to the development of every one of the 210 new drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration between 2010 and 2016. NIH funding also enables early-career scientists to remain in the medical research field, which is crucial to the sustained health of this country’s medical research enterprise.