{"id":43120,"date":"2023-10-03T07:00:47","date_gmt":"2023-10-03T14:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vermont.salk.edu\/?post_type=disclosure&p=43120"},"modified":"2023-10-03T08:40:53","modified_gmt":"2023-10-03T15:40:53","slug":"salk-institutes-christina-towers-receives-nih-new-innovator-award","status":"publish","type":"disclosure","link":"https:\/\/www.salk.edu\/zh\/news-release\/salk-institutes-christina-towers-receives-nih-new-innovator-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Salk Institute\u2019s Christina Towers receives NIH New Innovator Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

LA JOLLA\u2014Salk Institute Assistant Professor Christina Towers<\/a> received a five-year, $2.85 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director\u2019s New Innovator Award from the NIH Common Fund\u2019s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program<\/a>. Towers received one of 58 New Innovator Awards this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are exceedingly proud of Christie. These elite awards support the most innovative research in the biomedical sciences, and she is known for her out-of-the-box approaches to improving our understanding of how tumors escape the body\u2019s defenses and devising creative approaches to prevent that escape,\u201d says Salk President Gerald Joyce<\/a>. \u201cThis new research funding will boost her efforts to reduce cancer recurrence and improve outcomes for cancer patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Christina<\/a>
Caption: Christina Towers
Click here<\/a> for a high-resolution image.
Credit: Salk Institute<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Towers is a member of Salk\u2019s National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center, where she works to uncover the mechanisms that cancer cells use to recycle nutrients and power-generating mitochondria to grow in low-nutrient environments. She uses a combination of techniques and tools ranging from gene editing and manipulation to three-dimensional miniature organs.<\/p>\n

With the NIH Director\u2019s New Innovator Award, Towers and team will now employ new tools and models to better understand cancer cells\u2019 rapid and dynamic response to metabolic changes\u2014all with the goal to prevent resistance in cancer patients.<\/p>\n

According to Towers, treatment resistance remains a significant challenge in cancer care largely because cancer cells have the remarkable ability to adapt. Cancer cell survival often depends on a natural recycling process\u2014known as autophagy\u2014but rare cells within the tumor can also find alternative mechanisms to survive, even when they lose the ability to perform autophagy. This phenomenon, she says, provides an excellent paradigm to study metabolic adaptations in cancer cells.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis award will allow us to invest in high-risk, high-reward science and pursue innovative hypotheses about the roles of cellular recycling in cancer,\u201d Towers says.<\/p>\n

Towers has received numerous previous awards, including a Pathway to Independence Award from the National Institutes of Health, American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship, Science Diversity Leadership Award<\/a> from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Young Investigator Award through Black in Cancer in partnership with the Emerald Foundation, Inc., and V Foundation\u2019s A Grant of Her Own: The Women Scientists Innovation Award for Cancer Research. Additionally, in 2022 she was named a Pew-Stewart Scholar for Cancer Research<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe [High-Risk, High-Reward] program is a pillar for innovation here at NIH, providing support to transformational research, with advances in biomedical and behavioral science,\u201d said Robert W. Eisinger, acting director of the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives, which oversees the NIH Common Fund. \u201cThese awards align with the Common Fund\u2019s mandate to support science expected to have exceptionally high and broadly applicable impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Towers\u2019 NIH Director\u2019s New Innovator Award is grant #1DP2CA290705.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","faculty":[382],"disease-research":[279,46],"class_list":["post-43120","disclosure","type-disclosure","status-publish","hentry","faculty-christina-towers","disease-research-awards","disease-research-cancer-biology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSalk Institute\u2019s Christina Towers receives NIH New Innovator Award - Salk Institute for Biological Studies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.salk.edu\/zh\/news-release\/salk-institutes-christina-towers-receives-nih-new-innovator-award\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"zh_CN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Salk Institute\u2019s Christina Towers receives NIH New Innovator Award - Salk Institute for Biological Studies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LA JOLLA\u2014Salk Institute Assistant Professor Christina Towers received a five-year, $2.85 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director\u2019s New Innovator Award from the NIH Common Fund\u2019s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program. 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