Giselle López, MD, PhD, was awarded a Clinical Scientist Development Award from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to support her project, “Genomic and Spatial Expression Analysis of Oligodendroglioma to Identify Novel Therapeutic and Prognostic Targets.”
“The treatments for oligodendroglioma, a tumor that can occur in the brain or spinal cord, have remained largely unchanged for over a decade. My goal with these studies is to identify new targets for the treatment of oligodendroglioma, improving survival and quality of life for patients with these brain tumors. I am incredibly grateful to the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation for their support of these important studies.”
The Clinical Scientist Development Awards fund promising physician scientists whose projects have the potential to advance the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of human disease and to enable their transition to independent research careers. The 2022 recipients, who will each receive grants of $495,000 over three years, emerged through a rigorous, multistage peer review process and comprise roughly 10% of the applicant pool.
Their applications were evaluated on significance, originality and research approach of the scientific proposals, and the research environment. The Clinical Scientist Development Awards program enables physician scientists to dedicate and protect 75% of time towards their clinical research and encourages the development of strong mentorship relations in supportive institutional environments.
Read about three Duke patients surviving brain tumors – two of whom were diagnosed with oligodendroglioma – in Julie Harbin’s Magnify article, “Trailblazers: Healing and Hope Among Us.”
About the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is to improve the quality of people’s lives through grants supporting the performing arts, environmental conservation, child well-being and medical research, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke’s properties. The foundation’s Medical Research Program supports clinical research that advances the translation of biomedical discoveries into new preventions, diagnoses and treatments for human diseases.