The K-State Family is fighting, ever fighting, for a cure! Get your shirt and wear it Sat., Oct. 5, for K-State’s 6th Annual Fighting for a Cure Day, in honor of the K-State Family’s cancer survivors and researchers! All proceeds support K-State cancer research and education.
The 10th annual Pink Power Luncheon will be Fri., Oct. 11. Guest speaker Jennifer Klemp, PhD, MPH, will give the presentation, “Understanding your risk: Breast cancer genetics and survivorship.” Dr. Klemp is an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Clinical Oncology and the director of Cancer Survivorship at the University of Kansas Cancer Center.
The event is free, but reservations are required by Oct. 4. Reserve your spot early as it fills up quickly.
This tournament honors Rob Regier, a 1988 K-State pre-dentistry alum who died of cancer in 1992 at age 26. Hosted by Rob’s family, this 4-person scramble offers a high-quality souvenir, hole prizes and a steak dinner.
This year’s tournament will be dedicated in loving memory to Dr. Rob Denell, former Johnson Cancer Research Center director, and Bill Trenkle, close friend of the Regier family, who both passed away from cancer in the past year.
This tournament honors Brad Heyka, a K-State finance alum who was tragically killed in 2000 at age 27.
To date, this event has raised more than $300,000 to support K-State scholarships, including significant funds for graduate student cancer researchers.
Presented by MHK Girls Pint Out Sat., Oct. 26, Bluemont Hotel, Manhattan
Girls Pint Out is a national craft beer organization for women. The Manhattan-based group aims to build a community of women who love craft beer and getting together for educational, charitable and social events. This October, they’ll “get their freak on” to support K-State cancer research!
Imagine going to your doctor’s office for your annual checkup and having a simple and affordable blood test tell you in less than an hour whether you have a type of cancer or neurodegenerative disease. Chemistry professors Stefan Bossmann and Chris Culbertson have developed a device that does just that.
Dr. Santosh Aryal, chemistry and Nanotechnology Innovation Center of K-State, and his doctoral student Ramesh Marasini and former doctoral student Tuyen Nguyen (now a postdoctoral fellow at MD Anderson Cancer Center), are addressing the urgent need to develop better strategies regarding the use of potentially toxic gadolinium-based contrast agents in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Their work was featured in Advanced Science News. read story
This National Cancer Institute story discusses dog clinical trials that can help dogs and humans. NCI sponsors many dog clinical trials in its network, which includes Kansas State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. These institutions’ Comparative Oncology programs treat dogs with cancer while also gaining clues about human cancers. One clinical trial that K-State partners on, involving dogs with osteosarcoma, could help kids with bone cancer.
Dr. Gregory Finnigan, biology, was featured in a story about CRISPR gene-editing technology in Seek, K-State’s research magazine. read story
FACULTY ACHIEVEMENTS
Stefan Bossmann, chemistry, was named a University Distinguished Professor, K-State’s highest faculty ranking. read more
Mary Lynn Higginbotham, clinical sciences, presented ‘Immunotherapeutic Approaches in Canine Lymphoma’ at BioNexus’s One Health Research Symposium Aug. 29 in Kansas City. read more
Katie Heinrich, kinesiology, was named a fellow of the American Academy of Health Behavior. read more
Takashi Ito, chemistry, received the Ervin W. Segebrecht Honorarium Award for excellence in teaching and research in the departments of chemistry and chemical engineering. read more
Michael Kanost, biochemistry and molecular biophysics, received a Commerce Bank and W.T. Kemper Foundation Distinguished Graduate Faculty Award. read announcement
Zhilong Yang, biology, was awarded a $1.9 million National Institutes of Health grant to study how vaccinia virus—a member of the poxvirus family—produces its proteins. read more
Michal Zolkiewski, microbiology & molecular biophysics, was awarded a $2 million National Institutes of Health grant to develop new antibiotics. read story
STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS
Three undergraduate students who work in Johnson Cancer Research Center affiliated laboratories were named Goldwater Scholars: Erianna Basgall, junior in biochemistry; Mackenzie Thornton, junior in microbiology and pre-medicine; and Gabrielle Phillips, senior in chemical engineering. read more
Fawwaz Naeem received the Division of Biology’s H.H. Haymaker Award for Excellence, recognizing graduating seniors who have demonstrated a high level of accomplishment as undergraduates, and who have the promise to continue such high performance in a biological sciences-related career. read more
JCRC Spring Awards and Student Recognition Banquet
Thanks to our generous supporters, we invested $151,833 in K-State cancer research and education last semester! Graduate student support was our main focus that semester. We awarded graduate and post-doctoral students $114,943 in summer stipends and $9,640 for travel. We awarded faculty $27,200 for innovative research projects and laboratory equipment.The awardees are listed on our Faculty and Student Awardee webpages.
We honored undergraduate student researchers at our Cancer Research Awards Banquet April 12. Recognized along with the students were their faculty mentors and families, and the donors who made the awards possible. Photos are available in an album on Facebook.
Cancer Journal Club
The Cancer Journal Club is a forum for K-State students, faculty and friends interested in hot topics in cancer biology. Undergraduate students are especially encouraged to participate. For each meeting, a professor or graduate student involved in cancer research chooses a high-impact research article in the field of cancer biology for all club members to read, and then leads discussion about it at the meeting. Undergraduate students can elect to present papers to improve their oral presentation skills.
The club generally meets every other week. For more information, contact Dr. Katsura Asano at kasano@ksu.edu.
About 150 people participated in the 4th annual Walk Kansas 5K for the Fight & 1.5-mile fun walk May 4! Our thanks to Walk Kansas, the participants and the Cancer Center of Kansas for raising $3,142 for K-State cancer research! Thanks also to PrairieStone, HyVee, Kansas Wheat, Sunny 102.5 and many volunteers for donating water, food, music/emcee support and time and energy! Special thanks to our volunteer photographer, K-State student Alex Wilson! View his (and a few of our) photos in the album on Facebook!
What a spectacular event Manhattan Running Company presented on May 25! The highlight was finishing on the football field at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. Coach Snyder selected the Johnson Cancer Research Center and three other organizations to benefit from the event. We are so grateful to him, Manhattan Running Company and all the supporters for the $3,000 gift! view photos
The You’ll Never Run Alone 5K honored Manhattan High School and club soccer coach Frank Alonso, who passed away from pancreatic cancer last fall. This inaugural event, held Aug. 18, drew incredible support! Thanks to the hard work of Frank’s wife Jennifer Alonso, and the support of about 300 participants and a multitude of sponsors and volunteers, this event raised an impressive $10,900 for K-State’s Center of Excellence in Pancreatic Cancer Research!
