Dr. Shiqin (Laura) Liu receives the Eula and Donald S. Coffey Innovative Research Award for her research discoveries and talk “UCHL1 is a Molecular Indicator and a Therapeutic Target for Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer” at the Society for Basic Urological Research (SBUR) annual conference. 

Congratulations, Laura!

Dr. Alifiani Bonita Hartono wins second place poster award for her project titled “Utilizing High-Throughput Screening of Small Compounds to Develop Inhibitors for Aggressive Prostate Cancer”, at the Molecular and Medical Pharmacology Departmental Retreat.

Congratulations, Bonita!

Dr. Tanya Stoyanova receives Department of Defense (DoD) Idea Development Award to find new lung cancer treatments 

Dr. Tanya Stoyanova, Associate Professor of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology and Urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, was awarded a $350,000 Idea Development Award from the Department of Defense.

The award will help Dr. Stoyanova, a member of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, to identify new cancer detection and treatment strategies for small cell lung cancer, a highly aggressive form of the disease that accounts for approximately 15% of lung cancers. Known for spreading quickly, most people diagnosed with the disease face low chances of survival beyond five years.

The award will support Dr. Stoyanova and her team in testing blood levels of ubiquitin carboxy-terminal hydrolase L1 — a protein recently discovered by Stoyanova to be a new promising target for small cell lung cancer — from people suffering from the disease. The team will then test the use of the enzyme as a biomarker to diagnose and monitor their responses to therapies, while also testing different drugs that target the enzyme as a new potential therapeutic strategy.

“Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-associated mortality in the U.S. and affects active-duty military, veterans, and their families,” said Dr. Stoyanova, also a member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA. “With this study, we hope to uncover new minimally invasive blood-based approaches to diagnose and monitor responses to therapies for small cell lung cancer, and reveal new treatments for patients suffering from the disease.”

See Full Article at: https://newsroom.ucla.edu/dept/faculty/tanya-stoyanova-defense-department-grant-lung-cancer

Dr.Stoyanova and collaborators, Dr. Jung, Dr. Witte, and Dr. Chin, receive UCLA SPORE in Prostate Cancer Developmental Research Award for their project, “Developing New Therapeutic Strategies to Target UCHL1 in Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer”

Congratulations, Dr.Stoyanova and the collaborative team!

Dr. Shiqin Liu is awarded the 2023 UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC) Postdoctoral Fellowship Award

Dr. Shiqin (Laura) Liu, MD. Ph.D. receives a JCCC Postdoctoral Fellowship Award on her project “Testing UCHL1 as a Molecular Indicator and Therapeutic Target for Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer,” with the mentorship of Dr. Tanya Stoyanova.

Congratulations Laura!

Christopher Massey (PhD Candidate MMP) receives 2023 Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC) fellowship award

His project aims for the “Development of anti-Trop2 Antibody-based Radiopharmaceuticals for Epithelial Cancers”, and is mentored by Dr. Tanya Stoyanova and Dr. Peter Clark.

Congratulations Chris!

Dr. Stoyanova awarded R01 grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Cancer Institute (NCI) for the project titled “Delineating the Role of GSTP1 in Advanced Prostate Cancer.”

Dr. Tanya Stoyanova, associate professor of molecular and medical pharmacology and urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, was awarded a $1.5 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to identify new treatment strategies for neuroendocrine prostate cancer, a highly aggressive form of the disease. Her project is titled “Delineating the Role of GSTP1 in Advanced Prostate Cancer,” and she will be investigating ways to utilize GSTP1, a membrane protein overexpressed in advanced prostate cancer cells, as a biomarker and a therapeutic target for early detection and targeted therapy.

Currently, the first line of treatment for many men with advanced metastatic prostate cancer is hormone therapy. Although the treatment can work for some, the cancer often comes back in a more aggressive form and becomes resistant to hormone therapy. Neuroendocrine prostate cancer is a highly aggressive subtype of prostate cancer that increases in incidence after development of hormone therapy resistance.

The grant will help support Stoyanova and her team identify new molecular mechanisms underlying the development of neuroendocrine prostate cancer, investigate what role a detoxification enzyme may play in contributing to the disease, and test new agents — on their own and in combination — to see if they can be effective treatments for the hard-to-treat cancer.

“With this study, we hope to set the foundation for clinical trials with new therapeutic interventions and combinations of therapeutic agents to combat metastatic neuroendocrine prostate cancer,” said Stoyanova, a member of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA.

To check out the full article: https://www.uclahealth.org/news/dr-tanya-stoyanova-awarded-15-million-uncover-new-ways-treat

Welcome to Dr.Stoyanova’s lab, Chris!

Congratulations Bo!

Big congratulations to you Tanya!