Photo by Tom Campbell Scott Briggs and Ann Kirchmaier have won prestigious Kimmel Foundation for Cancer research grants in consecutive years.

Kimmel grants expand cancer research

For the second consecutive year, a Purdue University College of Agriculture researcher has won a grant from the Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research.

Scott Briggs is one of 15 scholars for 2004. Last year, Ann Kirchmaier received one of the two-year, $200,000 grants. Briggs and Kirchmaier are assistant professors in the Department of Biochemistry.

“Not many schools have Kimmel scholars in consecutive years,” says Jim Forney, biochemistry department head. “The ones that usually do are universities with degree-granting medical schools. I’m excited that we’ve been able to convince talented young

scientists to come to Purdue.”

Briggs and Kirchmaier focus their research on modifications of proteins in cells’ nuclei that play roles in whether cells divide and become normal tissue or whether they produce masses of cancer cells.

Kirchmaier uses yeast cells and the human Epstein-Barr virus to understand how genes are turned on or off and remain in those states over many cell divisions. In cancer, a gene can be inappropriately turned off without damage to the gene. The Epstein-Barr virus, which causes infectious mononucleosis, also is responsible for a number of cancers, including Hodgkin’s lymphoma and cancer of the nasal cavity and pharynx called nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

“We’re basically trying to discern what modifications the virus uses to change its own gene expression and that of its host to affect normal cell growth and differentiation of specific tissues,” Kirchmaier says.

Briggs investigates histone methyltransferases, which may play a role in cell growth and tumor formation. Some of these proteins are overabundant in many human cancers, including multiple myeloma, breast cancer, leukemia and prostate cancer.

“Some of these methyltransferases activate gene expression and some cause gene repression,” Briggs says. “We want to know how these processes are regulated—what the enzymes are doing. The ultimate goal is to understand how these regulate gene expression, which may lead to a cure or prevention for cancer.”

Contact them at: kirchmaier@purdue.edu or sdbriggs@purdue.edu