Memorial Sloan Kettering
Cancer Center
Young Investigator Grant

On behalf of The North American Neuroendocrine Tumor Society (NANETS), it is a pleasure to announce the selection of Diane Reidy-Lagunes, M.D., M.S. as the recipient a Young Investigator award in the amount of $50,000. Her research proposal, entitled “A Novel Therapeutic Strategy to Identify the Pathways Driving Neuroendocrine Tumors & Improve Our Treatments: From Mouse Models to Human Patients” describes an innovative, collaborative strategy that brings together clinical and basic researchers to uncover and therapeutically target the pathways driving neuroendocrine tumor (NET) development.

“The project will help address current knowledge gaps by integrating the analysis of human NET samples with appropriate mouse models of NET cancer. Of particular interest is Dr. Reidy-Lagunes’ approach of testing specific, novel targeted therapies in the mouse model to speed their path to the clinic. “We will move back and forth between human and animal studies, which will continuously cross-inform each other, with the ultimate goal of rapidly translating the knowledge we gain into a novel and effective treatments for this disease,” said Dr. Reidy.

More broadly, the Young Investigator Award helps address a current shortage of young scientists focused on the investigation of neuroendocrine tumors and is open to investigators at the end of their fellowship or beginning of their faculty appointment. The award was supported by The NET Alliance, a long-term commitment by Novartis Oncology, with the goal of improving patient outcomes in NETs. This collaborative partnership and the assistance of Novartis in funding research will be a critical component of improving the lives of people with carcinoid/NET cancers.

Dr. Reidy-Lagunes will be presenting developments from this research project at the NANETS annual meeting in 2010.