Biography:Utthara Nayar
Utthara Nayar is a cancer researcher based in Boston, Massachusetts .[1] Her work focuses specifically on breast cancer.[2]
Biography
Nayar lived in the country of Oman during her childhood.[2] She was encouraged to participate in science, with her passion being in biology and physics.[2]
For her undergraduate degree Nayar attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a part of their biology Honors Program with a major in biology.[2] She earned her doctorate through Weill Cornell Medical College.[1] She is employed at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as a researcher in the lab of Nikhil Wagle.[2][3] She is also a member of a team at Harvard Medical School as a research affiliate.[4]
Research
At the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Nayar and her team have been investigating metastatic breast cancer and how hormones affect patient treatment.[2] For some forms of breast cancer a patient is ER positive, or estrogen receptor positive, meaning that tumors grow as the levels of estrogen in the body increase.[2] For this type of breast cancer, patients quickly become resistant to the treatment methods available and their bodies stop responding to any medical help they receive, seemingly without any connection.[3][4] However, Nayar and her team found a link in patients who became resistant to ER positive treatment- many had HER-2 gene mutations.[3] This possible discovery has spurred on a five-year phase 2 trial by Nayar and her team, investigating the connection between ER positive treatment rejection and the HER-2 gene.[5]
Publications
| Year | Publication |
|---|---|
| 2013 | Nayar, U., Pin Lu, Goldstein, R. L., Vider, J., Ballon, G., Rodina, A., ... Cesarman, E. (2013). Targeting the Hsp90-associated viral oncoproteome in gammaherpesvirus-associated malignancies. Blood, 122(16), 2837–2847. https://doi.org/10.1182/blood-2013-01-479972[6] |
| 2017 | Nayar, U., Sadek, J., Reichel, J., Hernandez-Hopkins, D., Akar, G., Barelli, P. J., ... Cesarman, E. (2017). Identification of a nucleoside analog active against adenosine kinase-expressing plasma cell malignancies. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 127(6), 2066–2080. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI83936[7] |
Awards and recognition
In 2012 while at Cornell, Nayar was awarded the AACR-Aflac, Inc. Scholar-in-Training Award.[1]
In 2018 while working at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Nayar was awarded the 2018 Women In Cancer Research Scholar Award by the American Association for Cancer Research for her work with breast cancer.[8]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Awards and Honors Across Weill Cornell Medical College" (in en). WCM Newsroom. https://news.weill.cornell.edu/news/2012/04/awards-and-honors-across-weill-cornell-medical-college-1.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 "Utthara Nayar is targeting cancer drug resistance" (in en). Broad Institute. 2018-03-19. https://www.broadinstitute.org/blog/utthara-nayar-targeting-cancer-drug-resistance.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Why Some Breast Cancer Becomes Resistant to Hormone Therapy". https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/894205.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "HER-2 mutations linked to hormone therapy resistance in breast cancer subtype" (in en). https://www.healio.com/hematology-oncology/breast-cancer/news/online/%7Ba9bbbee2-7f11-46d7-94b3-3f57314ae4fb%7D/her-2-mutations-linked-to-hormone-therapy-resistance-in-breast-cancer-subtype.
- ↑ "Fulvestrant plus neratinib reversed treatment-acquired HER2 mutations in metastatic ER+ breast cancer" (in en-US). https://www.pm360online.com/fulvestrant-plus-neratinib-reversed-treatment-acquired-her2-mutations-in-metastatic-er-breast-cancer/.
- ↑ Nayar, Utthara; Lu, Pin; Goldstein, Rebecca L.; Vider, Jelena; Ballon, Gianna; Rodina, Anna; Taldone, Tony; Erdjument-Bromage, Hediye et al. (2013-10-17). "Targeting the Hsp90-associated viral oncoproteome in gammaherpesvirus-associated malignancies" (in en). Blood 122 (16): 2837–2847. doi:10.1182/blood-2013-01-479972. ISSN 0006-4971. PMID 23943653.
- ↑ Nayar, Utthara; Sadek, Jouliana; Reichel, Jonathan; Hernandez-Hopkins, Denise; Akar, Gunkut; Barelli, Peter J.; Sahai, Michelle A.; Zhou, Hufeng et al. (2017-05-15). "Identification of a nucleoside analog active against adenosine kinase–expressing plasma cell malignancies" (in en). Journal of Clinical Investigation 127 (6): 2066–2080. doi:10.1172/jci83936. ISSN 0021-9738. PMID 28504647.
- ↑ "2018 Women in Cancer Research Scholar Awards" (in en-US). https://www.aacr.org/Meetings/Pages/Travel%20Grants/women-in-cancer-research-scholar-awards.aspx.
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