UNC researcher receives AACR and Kure It Kidney Cancer research grant

The American Association for Cancer Research and Kure It have announced that William Y. Kim, MD, will receive a 2012 AACR-Kure It Grant for Kidney Cancer Research.

Kim, assistant professor in the departments of medicine and genetics at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and member of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, will receive $250,000 during the two-year grant term. In addition, Kim will receive complimentary registration to the AACR Annual Meeting 2013, to be held April 6-10 in Washington, D.C., and will be recognized at the Annual Grants Reception and Dinner on Tuesday, April 9.

These grants are designed to provide support for innovative translational kidney cancer research designed to improve the survival and quality of life of patients with kidney cancer and, in turn, lead to individualized therapeutic options for the treatment or development of promising new kidney cancer therapies.

Kim's project, "Defining the RCC [Renal Cell Carcinoma] Kinome for Target Discovery and Individualized Therapy," aims to personalize kinase therapy based on the patient's kidney tumor.

"Despite the fact that kidney cancer has very few activating mutations in kinases, they can be activated through alternate means and remain tenable therapeutic targets in renal cell carcinoma. We will use a novel, quantitative mass spectroscopy-based assay developed at University of North Carolina to assess the global activation state of the kinome and identify both novel as well as currently actionable targets," said Kim.

The expert scientific review committee, assembled by the AACR, received 44 high-caliber applications from independent investigators who proposed to develop and study new ideas and approaches that will have a direct application and relevance to patients with kidney cancer.

Provided by University of North Carolina Health Care