Aug 04, 2022
The Jumpstart Program supports investigators during the critical period of career development spanning from the completion of research training to the early years on faculty at Weill Cornell Medicine. By providing one year of initial funding, with the opportunity of up to $300,000 over three years, the program aims to assist investigators as they apply for a National Institutes of Health K award, an early-career grant that lays the foundation to conduct independent research in an academic setting.
Dr. Jorge Baquero, a postdoctoral associate in pharmacology, is seeking to characterize the role of a gene called B lymphoma Mo-MLV insertion region 1 (Bmi1) in oral squamous cell carcinomas. Bmi1 is a major component of a complex that represses transcription of many developmental genes. The gene is highly expressed in adult cancer stem cells involved in head and neck squamous carcinoma (HNSCC), and HNSCC patients with elevated Bmi1 expression have worse prognoses. Dr. Baquero plans to investigate the effects of increasing Bmi1 expression in epithelial stem cells of the mouth to determine how it contributes to the onset or development of HNSCC and to develop new therapeutic approaches to the cancer. Read the full article here...