PhD candidate receives Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award

Marian Ackun-Farmmer, a PhD candidate in Danielle Benoit's lab, has been awarded a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (F31) grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for her project titled “Nanoparticle mediated microenvironmental targeting of CCL3 signaling for the treatment of acute myelogenous leukemia.”

Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) is a public health concern that kills 2% of children and 70% of adults over the age of 65 diagnosed worldwide. This project is taking an unprecedented approach of treating AML by using a drug delivery approach to prime the bone marrow so that AML is less likely to evade standard chemotherapy. The proposed plan is expected to improve AML patient survival and will lead to development of a novel, versatile marrow-targeted system that is applicable for other types of leukemia and marrow associated diseases.