Scientist Dr. Aparna Bhaduri, assistant professor of medicine and biological chemistry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, has been selected to the 2024 class of Pew-Stewart Scholars for Cancer Research by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Alexander and Margaret Stewart Trust.
Bhaduri, a member of the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA, is one of five early career scientists chosen for the four-year grant to explore new avenues in cancer development, diagnosis and treatment.
The award will help support Bhaduri’s work in uncovering the mechanisms behind treatment resistance in glioblastoma, an often-lethal type of brain cancer that is extremely difficult to treat. Bhaduri and members of her lab will use organoid transplantation models, which are model versions of the human brain grown in a lab dish, along with other techniques to study individual cells within the tumor. Their goal is to understand which stem cells create the various cell types in a tumor and how these diverse cells help the tumor resist treatment. By identifying the specific cell types involved, they hope to develop more effective future treatments.
“I am honored to be named a Pew-Stewart Scholar for Cancer Research,” said Bhaduri. “This award is meaningful to our research because it will power some of our high risk, high reward ideas and hopefully, pave the way for developing more effective therapies for this devastating disease.”
