Anna Marie Kenney, Ph.D.

Distinguished Scientist Award Recipients

Anna Marie Kenney, Ph.D.

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York
2003 Distinguished Scientist Award

Education:
St. Mary's College, Maryland, B.A., 1991, Biology
Yale University, Ph.D., 1998, Neuroscience
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 1998-2003, Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. David Rowitch

"I attended a retreat held for patients, survivors and families affected by brain cancer�and attended several open sessions for physicians and patients. More often than not, the answer to questions about causes, cures, diagnoses, and prognoses for brain cancer sufferers was, 'I don't know.' At the conclusion of the retreat, I left with a firm resolve to apply myself at the bench to address those questions and provide the answers to the people so supportive of my post-doctoral research."

-- Dr. Anna Marie Kenney

About Dr. Kenney's Research:

Cell Cycle Regulation in Central Nervous System Progenitor Cells by Sonic Hedgehog Signaling and N-myc

Future effective brain cancer treatments will be those that target molecules specifically affecting tumor growth, thereby avoiding all the devastating side effects of current treatments such as surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. To identify growth regulators that could be attacked by anti-tumor strategies, we must understand how cell division occurs in cells that give rise to brain tumors. In adults, neural stem cells have been identified as a source of brain tumors. The childhood brain tumor medulloblastoma develops from immature cells in the cerebellum, the part of the brain coordinating movement. A protein called "Sonic hedgehog" (Shh) is involved in proliferation of neural stem cells and developing cerebellar neurons. Shh turns on a gene called N-myc, which regulates other genes further downstream in the process of cell growth and division. N-myc is implicated in many human cancers, including gliomas, neuroblastomas, and medulloblastomas. My research will address the causes and consequences of N-myc activity in neural stem cells and immature cerebellar neurons. First, I will determine how growth-regulating molecules control the amount of N-myc protein in these cells. Next, I will produce mice with mutations affecting the amount of N-myc protein, to test the idea that increased N-myc protein contributes to abnormal development and consequently, brain tumors. Finally, I will investigate the way chromosomal structure itself determines which genes N-myc activates in dividing immature brain cells. My goal is to identify proteins that may be targets for anti-tumor drug design, and to develop mice to use for modeling childhood and adult brain cancers.

Accolades:

"Anna is outstanding...Her work has yielded important insights...She possesses the qualities of dedication and innovative thinking we look for in an academic, and I anticipate that she will be a leader in [this] new field."

-- David H. Rowitch, M.D., Ph.D.
Dana-Farber Cancer Research Institute, Boston

"As a scientist, Anna displays a range of often mutually exclusive qualities that suggest a splendid future as an independent investigator. She is solid, yet creative and productive, yet careful...Within five years she will become a nationally known figure in brain cancer research."

-- C.D. Stiles, Ph.D.
Dana-Farber Cancer Research Institute, Boston

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