Pachynski receives two early-career grants

Russell Pachynski, MD, an assistant professor of medicine and a Siteman Cancer Center research member, is being recognized separately by the Kimmel Scholars Program and the Prostate Cancer Foundation for his innovative research. 

As a Kimmel Scholar, Pachynski will receive a $200,000 grant. The money, which may be used to establish a research lab, is intended to attract larger future grants.

He also is receiving a Young Investigator Award and $225,000 grant from the Prostate Cancer Foundation, which aims to identify “future research leaders who will keep the field of prostate cancer research vibrant with new ideas.” 

Pachynski’s research is focused on a novel protein, chemerin, whose expression often is turned down in prostate cancer compared with normal prostate tissue. Chemerin plays a role in directing immune-cell migration and might help the immune system monitor the formation of prostate tumors. In preclinical tumor models, increasing chemerin has led to an increase of “good” immune cells in the tumor and reduced tumor growth. Further research into this tumor suppressor could lead to new immunotherapies. Under the Prostate Cancer Foundation project, Pachynski’s lab also will study other factors in prostate tumors that lead to infiltration by immune cells, to better understand how to optimize immune-based therapies.