9/30/2008
The Garry Betty Scholars Program pays for international researchers to come to U-M for training in adrenal cancer research
The two new Garry Betty Scholars have begun their tenure in the University of Michigan Adrenal Cancer Program.
Claudimara Ferini Pacicco Lotfi, Ph.D. earned her doctoral degree atthe University of Sco Paulo, Sco Paulo, Brazil. She received additional postdoctoral training at the Hugo A. Armelin's Laboratory of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the Chemical Institute of University of Sco Paulo, where she began pioneering work on how growth factors control the proliferation of adrenal cancer cells. In 1999 she obtained a Young Investigator award by the Sco Paulo Research Foundation to develop her own research project in this area at the Biomedical Science Institute of University of Sco Paulo, where she is now an Assistant Professor. Through the support of CAPES (Coordenagco e Aperfeigoamento de Pessoal de Nmvel Superior) and the Garry Betty Foundation, Dr. Lofti becomes the first Visiting Professor of the Garry Betty Scholar Program. In her studies, she will research growth factor gene methylation related with the maintenance and growth of adrenocortical stem/progenitors cells and adrenal cancer.
Isabella Finco, studied Biotechnology at Europe's prestigious University of Padua, Italy. She then entered graduate school at the same University in the laboratory of Franco Mantero, M.D., one of the world's leading scientists in adrenal cancer research where she began pursuing the role of vascular growth factors in adrenal cancer. Based on her excellent work, she was selected as a 2008 International Scholar of the Endocrine Society. Isabella will use her tenure as a Garry Betty Scholar to research the relationship of adrenal stem and progenitor cells to their supporting cells and how defects in communication between these cells can contribute to the development of adrenal cancer. It is predicted that understanding how these cells interact will provide insights for targeted therapy for this deadly disease.
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