INTEGRATING MOLECULAR BIOLOGY WITH CANCER MOLECULAR IMAGING AND THERANOSTICS

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Y at ha A hu Vai ryo The purpose of this R50 application is to provide 6 months effort for Dr. Balaji Krishnamachary as a Research Specialist working with Dr. Bhujwalla as Unit Director. Dr. Krishnamachary was awarded his PhD in 1995, following which he completed his postdoctoral training, first in the Department of Pathology at ULCA from 1998- 2000, and subsequently in the Department of Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine from 2000-2006. During his postdoctoral training in the Department of Pediatrics, Dr. Krishnamachary worked with Dr. Gregg Semenza on hypoxia and the hypoxia inducible factor (HIF)-1. He gained significant expertise in constructing both siRNA and shRNA, establishing a retroviral delivery method to silence the transcription factor hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) in vitro in renal carcinoma, and was trained in various molecular biology techniques to interrogate the transcriptional activity of genes involved in the progression of cancer. Dr. Krishnamachary joined Dr. Bhujwalla’s Cancer Imaging Research Program in 2006 as a Research Associate. Dr. Krishnamachary is a laboratory research-oriented investigator with an outstanding track record in integrating molecular biology with molecular imaging and theranostics. As an exceptionally talented molecular biologist who has been actively pursuing research within Dr. Bhujwalla’s NCI funded molecular imaging and theranostics research program, this opportunity is particularly relevant for Dr. Krishnamachary. He has shown clear evidence of productivity and research excellence in molecular biology applied to molecular imaging. Dr. Krishnamachary will continue to integrate his molecular biology expertise within the cancer molecular imaging research program directed by Dr. Bhujwalla, with the goal of making significant contributions to cancer molecular imaging that is relevant to the NCI mission. The Unit Director, Dr. Bhujwalla, has been funded continuously by the NCI since 1997. Dr. Krishnamachary was recruited by her in 2006 to provide molecular biology expertise to her molecular imaging research program following the funding of an NCI P50 grant (JHU ICMIC Program) that she held from 2003-2017. Dr. Bhujwalla currently holds an NCI R35 Outstanding Investigator Award on ‘Molecular Imaging and Theranostics of Cancer’ that is funded until 2024. Since the previous R50 submission, Dr. Bhujwalla competitively renewed her R01 titled ‘Hostile Environments promote Invasion and Metastasis’, and was awarded a new R01 on ‘The Tumor Microenvironment in Nanoparticle Delivery and Function’. Dr. Krishnamachary’s efforts are closely integrated and critical to the scientific research of these grants providing clear evidence that Dr. Bhujwalla is strongly committed to Dr. Krishnamachary and his research. She has worked closely with Dr. Krishnamachary since 2006 and will continue to be responsible for the planning, direction, monitoring, and execution of the NCI funded research together with Dr. Krishnamachary. Dr. Bhujwalla’s purpose in supporting this application to the best of her ability is to achieve a stable environment for Dr. Krishnamachary and to advance his career.