Five individuals awarded YY Study Grants to further cancer research

UICC's Yamagiwa-Yoshida Memorial International Cancer (YY) Study Grants were first provided in 1972 and have been made possible through the long-standing support of UICC-Japan. They enable individuals from any country to benefit from a three-month visit to further their research through international collaboration, and gain new research skills and experience.

Five new YY Study Grants have been awarded from the 2023 call for applications to researchers from Argentina, India, Malaysia, Pakistan and the Philippines. Grantees will visit Brazil, Canada, Thailand and the United States for their three-month collaborative research visits. 

The grants cover a diverse range of research topics, including therapeutic targets for thyroid and bladder cancers, preclinical cancer drug discovery for breast cancer, studies of the tumour microenvironment of nasopharyngeal carcinomas and the development of novel therapies for metastatic lung cancer.

LEARN MORE ABOUT UICC's YY STUDY GRANTS

“My project is focused on identifying new biological targets that can be translated into novel clinical approaches for thyroid cancer. Through this fellowship, I will have a unique opportunity to get new skills and training in leading-edge technology and methodologies in the field. It will offer me an excellent opportunity to reinforce existing collaborative relationships and establish new ones. It will help me achieve my academic and professional goals of developing an independent career in the field of thyroid research.”
– Laura Fozzatti, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina

“This fellowship will give me the opportunity to forge ahead using a transdisciplinary approach towards discovery of new therapeutics for cancer control. The fellowship will be combining concepts of artificial intelligence for the development of an imaging platform for in-ovo image analysis for preclinical testing of anticancer agents. In addition, this fellowship will enable lasting collaborations with host lab for future collaborative research.”
– Seema Bhatnagar, Amity University Noida, India

“This study grant will allow me to learn an affordable method to study spatial biology that could address the unmet clinical needs in the management of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.”
– Lee Fah Yap, University of Malaya, Malaysia

“This award will open a new gateway for cancer treatment in Pakistan because here in our country the mortality rate of lung cancer is high. Interstitial photodynamic therapy and luminescent aerosol will be key for the enhancement of cancer recovery.”
– Safdar Ali, University of Swabi, Pakistan

“This award holds significant promise in the validation of the potential of the FDA-approved radioprotector amifostine (WR-2721). The focus of the study is on its efficacy in safeguarding normal cells during radiotherapy while concurrently selectively targeting the oncogene HRAS in bladder cancer cells where there is a notable upregulation of this oncogene.”
– Custer C. Deocaris, Philippine Nuclear Research Institute, Philippines