Thijn Brummelkamp wins Kimmel Scholar
Award
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (May 11, 2006) — Whitehead Fellow
Thijn
Brummelkamp is one of 15 young scientists to win
the 2006 Kimmel Scholar Award, sponsored by the Sidney
Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research. All recipients
will receive $100,000 per year for two years, provided
they continue to pursue cancer research at a non-profit
U.S.-based institution.
Approximately 200 scientists applied for this year’s
award. According to a statement released by the foundation,
“This award is designed to support superb, dedicated
young scientists who establish themselves during the
critical period between postdoctoral studies, or fellowship,
and procurement of an RO1 grant.” (An RO1 is a
standard grant issued by the National Institutes of
Health.)
Brummelkamp exploits a process called RNA interference
(RNAi), which can selectively turn off specific genes,
to study genes implicated in cancer. He and his colleagues
hope to use RNAi to identify vulnerabilities in a cancer
cell’s genetic make-up that can be targeted by
new therapeutics.
To apply RNAi, researchers must develop short, single-stranded
pieces of RNA that target a particular gene. This small
piece of RNA will disrupt the gene’s ability to
produce protein within the cell, essentially “silencing”
the gene. While this process has been tremendously successful
in a variety of research settings, the short lives of
these small RNA molecules make them difficult to use
for cancer research, in which the cells need to be observed
over long periods of time throughout many cell divisions.
Brummelkamp addressed this problem. While still in graduate
school, he and his colleagues developed a small RNA
molecule shaped like a hairpin that could last the entire
life of the cell. He did this by engineering a plasmid,
a circular strand of DNA that encodes the hairpin RNA
molecule. When placed into a cell, the plasmid enables
the cell to naturally produce this small RNA molecule,
and thus to permanently shut down the targeted gene.
The plasmid continues to produce the small hairpin RNA
in the cell’s progeny as well. While Brummelkamp
uses this technique primarily for cancer, it has wide
application in many areas of molecular biology.
He received his MS in biology from the Free University,
Amsterdam, in 1998. He did his graduate research at
The Netherlands Cancer Institute and received his PhD
cum laude in 2003 from Utrecht University.
Brummelkamp is one of 130 scholars provided with funding
through the Sidney Kimmel Foundation since 1995.
|
