Researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute have received a $2.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study endemic Burkitt lymphoma (eBL), an aggressive cancer that mainly affects children.
The research will focus on how simultaneous infection with certain pathogens — gammaherpesvirus (GHV) and the malaria parasite — can lead to eBL. The grant is for five years.
Craig Forrest, Ph.D., a professor in the College of Medicine Department of Microbiology and Immunology and member of the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, will serve as principal investigator for this study, working with Jason Stumhofer, Ph.D., an associate professor also in the College of Medicine Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Forrest, who works on four additional NIH grants studying GHVs, studies how GHV infection manipulates immune responses and affects cells in ways that predispose them to become cancer. Stumhofer is an expert in Plasmodium, the parasite that causes malaria.
“The Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute is proud to support researchers who are leading advances in our understanding of cancer and discovering potential new treatment options,” said Michael Birrer, M.D., Ph.D., vice chancellor of UAMS and director of the Cancer Institute. “Dr. Forrest’s five active NIH grants studying GHVs demonstrate the potential for this research to uncover new therapies and reduce the impact of these virus-associated cancers.”
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