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Linheng Li Lab Postdoctoral Research Associates Awarded Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Fellowships
Kansas City, Mo. (March 31, 2008) – Tong Yin, Ph.D., and John Perry, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Associates in the lab of Linheng Li, Ph.D., Associate Investigator, have been selected for fellowships with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Dr. Yin was named a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Special Fellow. Her three-year appointment will begin on July 1, 2008, and will provide $195,000 over three years. The funding will support Dr. Yin’s study of Bone Morphogenetic Proteins (BMPs), which are involved in blood and bone development and in tumor formation. Recent reports showed that BMPs can inhibit acute myeloid leukemia and malignant lymphoma, and inhibit cell growth in myeloma. She is studying the roles of Alk2 and Alk3, both components of the BMP receptor complexes that transmit BMP signals. Her goal is to more fully understand the role of BMP signaling in blood cells, leukemia, and lymphoma by determining the functions of Alk2 and Alk3 and their relationship to Pten — a negative regulator of a pathway known to impact the development and treatment of acute and chronic leukemia. “We are exited for Tong Yin to receive a competitive fellowship from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society,” said Dr. Linheng Li. “This fellowship will allow her to more systematically investigate the function of BMP signaling in hematopoietic stem cells. She has already found that double inactivation of two BMP receptors has a profound phenotype in hematopoietic stem cells, and we expect more important discoveries from her moving forward.” Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Special Fellows have completed a minimum of two years of postdoctoral research training and will continue to conduct their research under the direction of an approved research sponsor. The Special Fellowship is designed to permit fellows to begin the transition to launching an independent research program. Dr. Yin earned a Ph.D. from the Shanghai Institute of Hematology at the Shanghai Jiao-Tong University School of Medicine and a M.D. from Zhenjiang Medical University, P.R.China. Dr. Perry was named a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Fellow. His three-year appointment will begin on June 1, 2008, and will provide support in the amount of $165,000. It will fund research into the self-renewal of stem cells and how excessive self-renewal can lead to cancer. Dr. Perry will study self-renewal in an attempt to expand normal stem cells in culture, which may eventually allow limited sources of stem cells — such as umbilical cord blood — to be used to treat diseases like leukemia. Mutations that interrupt the Wnt and Pten pathways have been shown to cause multiple cancers in humans and in animal models. Dr. Perry will study the coordination of the two pathways in the regulation of stem cell self-renewal and the development of leukemia. “We are delighted to know that Dr. John Perry was awarded the LLS fellowship,” said Dr. Linheng Li. “In past work, he has been able to generate an animal model that combined both active ß-catenin and the loss of Pten, resulting in a double-mutant animal that rapidly developed leukemia due to expansion of leukemia stem cells. The Fellowship from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society will allow Dr. Perry to systematically identify and characterize leukemia stem cells, providing important insight into clinical targets for cancer stem cells." Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Fellows are promising investigators with less than two years of postdoctoral research training. They are encouraged to embark on an academic career involving clinical or fundamental research in, or related to, leukemia, lymphoma, or myeloma under the direction of a research sponsor. Dr. Perry holds a Ph.D. in Integrative Biosciences from Penn State University and a B.S. in Biology and Chemistry from Wright State University. About the Stowers Institute
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