UCLA Researcher Given Cancer Grant

A researcher at UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center is one of 13 recipients of a national cancer research grant.

Dr. Ke Shuai of Woodland Hills has been awarded a $100,000 grant from the Valvano Foundation, a North Carolina-based nonprofit organization that supports cancer research, said Bill Campbell, a foundation spokesman.

Campbell said Shuai will receive a two-year grant to support his research on blocking a protein that plays a critical role in obesity and certain types of cancer.

Shuai said he will investigate a link between two proteins, one of which serves as a messenger for three hormone-like substances that regulate growth and other biological functions in cancer, fat and immune cells.

“Our preliminary research offers a new understanding of the multiple and specific steps involved in how cells communicate with one another,” Shuai said.

He said his findings may provide a model for designing new cancer and obesity drugs.

Foundation President Ben Kirtland said Shuai’s breakthroughs on the cellular and genetic levels of cancer research impressed the peer-review award committee.