Zubrod Memorial Lecture Spotlights Outstanding Cancer Research

The event honored Sylvester faculty, launched a new award category for early-stage investigators and showcased more than 100 scientific posters.

Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, recognized outstanding research by faculty members, awarded its first Early-Stage Investigator of the Year and paid tribute to the legacy of Charles Gordon Zubrod, M.D., at the 23^rd Zubrod Memorial Lecture Nov. 17.

Dr. Zubrod led the Division of Cancer Treatment at the National Cancer Institute, pioneering the use of chemotherapy. In 1974 he became the founding director of what was then called the University of Miami Cancer Center, now Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Laurie Glimcher, M.D., president and CEO of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, served as this year’s distinguished lecturer. Her remarks focused on RIOK2 as a human blood development master regulator. Most notably, Dr. Glimcher identified key transcriptional regulators of protective immunity and the origin of pathophysiologic immune responses underlying autoimmune, infectious and malignant diseases.

In his opening remarks, Sylvester Director Stephen Nimer, M.D., also the Oscar de la Renta Endowed Chair in Cancer Research and executive dean of research at the Miller School, discussed Dr. Glimcher’s trailblazing career in cancer research as Dana-Farber’s first female president and CEO.

The lecture also featured more than 100 scientific posters, said Kerry Burnstein, Ph.D., associate director for education and training at Sylvester.

Awards

• Outstanding Basic/Translational Researcher of the Year: Lluis Morey, Ph.D., member, Cancer Epigenetics Research Program; basic science leader, Sylvester Breast Site Disease Group; associate professor of human genetics at the Miller School. Learn about Dr. Morey’s lab
• Outstanding Clinical Researcher of the Year: Jonathan C. Trent, M.D., Ph.D., associate director for clinical research and director of Sylvester’s Sarcoma Medical Research Program, professor of medicine at the Miller School. Learn about Dr. Trent’s lab
• Outstanding Population Science Researcher of the Year: Tracy Crane, Ph.D., RDN, associate professor of medical oncology, co-leader of the Cancer Control Program and director of lifestyle medicine, prevention and digital health at Sylvester. Learn about Dr. Crane’s lab
• Outstanding Mentor of the Year, Junior Faculty: Priyamvada Rai, Ph.D., co-leader of the Tumor Biology Program, professor of radiation oncology and director of the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) and the Comprehensive Research Experiences to Advance Training and Education (CREATE) programs at the Miller School.
• Outstanding Mentor of the Year, Trainees: Luisa Cimmino, Ph.D., member of the Cancer Epigenetics Program and assistant professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, at the Miller School. Learn about Dr. Cimmino’s lab
• Outstanding Teacher of the Year: Stuart E. Samuels, M.D., Ph.D., director of clinical research of the Head and Neck Site Disease Group; associate professor of clinical medicine, associate director of clinical operations and director of quality improvement, Department of Radiation Oncology, at the Miller School.

First Early-Stage Investigator of the Year Award

Priscila Barreto-Coelho, M.D., hematology and oncology chief fellow at Sylvester and Jackson Memorial Hospital, received the first 2023 Early-Stage Investigator of the Year award, which spotlights a researcher who is not yet faculty. Dr. Barreto-Coelho also was recently awarded a Conquer Cancer Career Young Investigator (YIA) Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

Top 5 Award-winning Posters

Data-driven identification of novel precision drug therapies for prostate cancer

• Co-awardees: Rimpi Khurana, Ph.D., and Maria Julia Martinez, Ph.D.
• Mentors: Kerry L. Burnstein, Ph.D., and Stephan C. Schürer, Ph.D.

More than just “vaginal dryness”: Addressing an unmet need for sexual health intervention in female cancer survivors through a surgeon-led, sexual-health-after-cancer program

• Awardee: Tizita Wolde, M.P.H., M.D. candidate
• Mentor: Kristin Rojas, M.D.

Cell-autonomous cxcl1 sustains tolerogenic circuitries and stromal inflammation via neutrophil-derived TNF in pancreatic cancer

• Awardee: Anna Bianchi, Ph.D.
• Mentor: Jashodeep Datta, M.D.

Targeted protein degradation overcomes kinase-dead drug-resistant BTK mutations in b-cell malignancies

• Awardee: Skye Montoya, Ph.D. candidate
• Mentor: Justin Taylor, M.D.

Identifying neighborhood hot spots of cervical cancer for targeted intervention in South Florida

• Awardee: Ming Lee, Ph.D.
• Mentor: Erin Kobetz, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Next Year’s Zubrod Memorial Lecture

For information about next year’s event, email Rositsa Kalinova or call 305-243-1539.

Tags: cancer research, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, Zubrod Memorial Lecture