New York Medical College in Valhalla has been awarded a $201,250 grant to study lung cancer formation and growth triggered by nickel compounds. The award from the National Institutes of Health was recently announced by U.S. Rep. Nita M. Lowey, the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee from the 17th congressional district in Westchester and Rockland countries.
Nickel compounds are known lung carcinogens, the primary cause of lung cancers, according to Lowey”™s office. Humans can be exposed to the substances through tobacco smoking, wood and coal combustion and automobile exhaust. In some occupational settings, workers are subjected to a very high level of exposure.
Lowey said the NIH research grant will support the Valhalla medical college”™s continued research into the relevance of certain proteins in lung cancer formation and progression in cellular and animal models. This study is expected to advance the understanding of lung cancer formation and progression in response to nickel compounds and will help to evaluate whether certain proteins are a suitable target of drug therapy.
The cancer research is a project of the Flow Cytometry Core Laboratory at Brander Cancer Research Institute in the school”™s pathology department. Dazhong Xu is the lead researcher and head of the laboratory.
“New York Medical College’s faculty has a long history of both investigating the causes of cancer and seeking measures to prevent it,” Dr. Edward C. Halperin, chancellor and CEO of New York Medical College, said in the announcement. “Professor Xu’s work continues this tradition. We are pleased to have such important research taking place on our campus.”
Lowey said the National Institutes of Health has awarded $3.2 million to New York Medical College for medical research since August 2013.
