Research into the cancer-fighting properties of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs helped Dr. Raymond DuBois Jr. land the Young Investigator Award
DuBois' research leads to 1996 Young Investigator Award
Dr. Raymond N. DuBois Jr., associate professor of Medicine and Cell Biology, has been named to receive the 1996 Young Investigator Award from the Gastroenterology Research Group (GRG) and the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA).
The award recognizes DuBois' work studying the molecular basis for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs' cancer-fighting properties.
DuBois will receive his award at the GRG/AGA's Fall Symposium in Chicago on Nov. 8, where he will deliver a paper titled "The Role of cyclooxygenase 2 in colorectal carcinogenesis (COX-2)."
Worldwide, the GRG/AGA counts approximately 19,000 members.
This marks the fourth year the Young Investigator Award has been given. DuBois' work was singled out from more than 70 nominations in the peer-review competition.
"This truly is an honor because we were competing with people from Harvard, Johns Hopkins and other institutions ranked in the top 20 in the country," DuBois said. "Our research group here at Vanderbilt played a huge part in this and I couldn't have been considered for this award without their help."
The Young Investigator Award was judged on the basis of:
€ Originality and innovative insight into a major scientific problem in gastroenterology,
€ Significance of the work to an area of research in gastroenterology and to other scientific or clinical disciplines,
€ The quality of other career research, teaching and clinical efforts by the investigator.
Recently, DuBois and Dr. Masahiko Tsujii, a VUMC fellow, published a study in Cell examining the role of COX-2 in the tumorigenic potential of intestinal epithelial cells. Research has shown that people who take aspirin and other NSAIDs on a regular basis have half the risk of developing colorectal cancer as do people not taking these medications.
Studies in the DuBois lab are centered around the newly cloned enzyme COX-2, one of two cyclooxygenase enzymes identified in humans.
The research was funded in part by the A.B. Hancock Jr. Memorial Laboratory, the Lucille P. Markey Charitable Trust the National Institutes of Health and the Veterans Affairs Administration.