Kimberley Evason, MD, PhD, and Gregory Ducker, PhD, were two of only twelve scientists nationwide to receive a Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award. This award is given by the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation annually to help "exceptionally creative thinkers" who pursue "high-risk, high-reward" research concepts.
Evason is a researcher at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI), assistant professor of pathology at the University of Utah (U of U), and medical director of pathology at ARUP Laboratories. Gregory Ducker is also an HCI researcher, and an assistant professor of biochemistry at the U of U. The award will fund Evason and Ducker’s research involving zebrafish related to liver cancer. Evason and Ducker study how the liver uses different forms of energy, including fat. They identified that certain kinds of fat are elevated in liver cancer cells and work to understand the impact of this fat on the disease. They use a zebrafish model system because liver tumors of zebrafish share attributes of human liver tumors.
"I would like to thank the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation for granting us this award," Ducker says. "They have an amazing track of identifying groundbreaking science."
"It is a great honor for us to have been selected," says Evason. "This award represents an endorsement of our collaborative approach—facilitated by the environment at Huntsman Cancer Institute—in the fight against liver cancer."
The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation notes that only scientists "with a clear vision and passion for curing cancer are selected to receive [this] prestigious award." The award provides Evason and Ducker $400,000 to fund their laboratory research on this project, with the potential for additional funds based on the results of their study.