American Thyroid Association Awards Research Grant to Nikita Pozdeyev, MD, PhD, University of Colorado

Supported by ThyCa: Thyroid Cancer Survivors' Association, Inc. and ATA

Nikita Pozdeyev, M.D., Ph.D. is the recipient of the 2016 American Thyroid Association (ATA) ThyCa: Thyroid Cancer Survivors' Association, Inc. Grant. The 2016 Research Grant has been awarded to Dr. Pozdeyev for his project entitled "Rational Combination Therapies with Lenvatinib for Advanced Thyroid Cancer."

Lenvatinib is an FDA-approved treatment for advanced thyroid cancer that no longer responds to radioiodine therapy. Although effective, lenvatinib does not usually result in a complete response, and some tumors develop resistance to the drug. Dr. Pozdeyev proposes to improve the effectiveness of lenvatinib by identifying synergistic combinations with other anti-cancer drugs.

He will test more than 200 drugs in combination with lenvatinib using an automated assay system to determine their potential for causing thyroid cancer cell death. Additional in silico studies will use machine learning algorithms to predict effective drug combinations based on data from public databases and generated in the researchers' laboratory. Dr. Pozdeyev and colleagues will then test the most promising drug combinations in cell culture and in mouse models of thyroid cancer to identify those with potential to advance to human clinical trials.

Dr. Motoyasu Saji, Chair, ATA Research Committee says, "The ATA research grant program has been supporting young scientists in various thyroid-related research area, including clinical, translational, and basic areas. Every year we receive over 50 Grant applications from various countries. We excite to see young thyroid researchers, who attack current clinical problems and basic scientific questions using state of art technologies, new ideas, and new views. Many current leaders in the ATA were award recipients and this tells us how this program is important for us. We hope that this grant will be one of gateway to succeed in carrier as thyroid researchers and they will become leaders in next generation in the ATA. Finally, we appreciate all supports from members and various organizations, including cancer survivors, to make us possible creating excellent program."

The American Thyroid Association (ATA) has awarded 85 thyroid research grants totaling over $2.2 million since the inception of the Research Fund. In addition, the ATA rigorously manages the selection of research projects and distribution of over $1.8 million generously donated to the ATA specifically for research grants from ThyCa: Thyroid Cancer Survivors' Association, Inc., Bite Me Cancer and Thyroid Head and Neck Cancer Foundation. For information on other research grants underway and funded by the ATA, see http://ift.tt/2l3TSGC.

ThyCa: Thyroid Cancer Survivors' Association, Inc. (ThyCa) has provided funding in support of 60 special research grants totaling $1,680,000 focused on thyroid cancer and medullary thyroid cancer since 2003. ThyCa is supporting three research grants in 2016 and three renewing grants. ThyCa is a member of the ATA Alliance for Patient Education. Find out more at www.thyca.org

Bite Me Cancer (BMC) is our newest grant funder supporting five thyroid cancer grants since 2014 for a total of $143,750. BMC will be supporting a new thyroid cancer grant in 2016 and one renewing grant. BMC is a member of the ATA Alliance for Patient Education. Find out more at www.bitemecancer.org

 

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The American Thyroid Association (ATA) is the leading worldwide organization dedicated to the advancement, understanding, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of thyroid disorders and thyroid cancer. ATA is an international individual membership organization for over 1,700 clinicians and researchers from 43 countries around the world, representing a broad diversity of medical disciplines. It also serves the public, patients and their family through education and awareness efforts.

Celebrating its 94^th anniversary, ATA delivers its mission through several key endeavors: the publication of highly regarded monthly journals, THYROID, Clinical Thyroidology, VideoEndocrinology and Clinical Thyroidology for the Public; annual scientific meetings; biennial clinical and research symposia; research grant programs for young investigators, support of online professional, public and patient educational programs; and the development of guidelines for clinical management of thyroid disease.

More information about ATA is found at www.thyroid.org.

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