, a Howard Milstein faculty fellow and assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology in the 麻豆视频 and 麻豆视频 with a secondary appointment at , is one of six winners of this year鈥檚 Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators in Cancer Research, which supports New York-based scientists exploring innovative avenues in the fight against cancer.
The awards, established in 2014, are given by the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance, dedicated to accelerating cures for cancer by advancing innovative cancer research and facilitating collaborations between science and business.
Prizewinners each receive $200,000 a year for up to three years and are partnered with an industry mentor who helps bring researchers鈥 discoveries from bench to market. The alliance also facilitates collaborations with other researchers and creates opportunities to present their ideas at conferences and events.
Aye, winner of several early career awards since arriving at Cornell in 2012, said she鈥檚 always been interested in applying her chemistry and chemical biology insights to 鈥渞eal-world relevance鈥 in human medicine.
鈥淚 was very honored to get the secondary appointment [to Weill Cornell Medicine], which was a big attraction to me in addition to Cornell being a strong university,鈥 said Aye, who has been a lecturer to first-year medical students at Weill Cornell every fall since her arrival.
The work for which Aye and her lab associates were recognized involves the enzyme ribonucleotide reductase (RNR), which they say is the central player in genome surveillance since the beginning of DNA-based life but whose complex regulation has been understudied. The Aye Lab鈥檚 work focuses on overlooked functions of a specific subunit of RNR, known as RNR-alpha, and how its interaction with two novel binding partners can either promote or suppress DNA synthesis.
鈥淭his project builds on a game-changing idea based on some interesting data we have developed over the past four years,鈥 Aye said. 鈥淭hese results give us confidence that we have uncovered an important niche that may provide novel cancer interventions.鈥
The lab鈥檚 discovery provided the framework for Aye鈥檚 successful proposal to the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance.
Aye said one unique aspect of this award was the panel of experts 鈥 30 of the leading cancer biologists in the country, including several Nobel laureates 鈥 who conducted the interviews during the third and final stage of the proposal process.
鈥淚 have gone through other award competitions,鈥 said Aye, who won a , a National Science Foundation early career award and an in 2014, a and an . 鈥淏ut this one was special because several of the interviewers are highly accomplished scientists you wouldn鈥檛 often get the opportunity to meet, let alone talk science with or be grilled by. So, when I was invited for the third-round interviews, I was just so excited for the chance to meet these people.鈥
Much of the a chemical procedure that can target and modulate single proteins in live cells and fish, which was detailed in papers published in October in Nature Protocols and in January in Nature Chemical Biology.
The winners of this year鈥檚 Pershing Square Sohn Prize will make presentations at the annual Sohn Investment Conference, May 8 in New York.
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