New Discoveries and Honors

Enteroendocrine cells, which line the wall of the gut, secrete hormones that regulate glucose levels, food intake, and stomach emptying. Abnormal activity of these cells can cause gastrointestinal disorders, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), as well as intestinal tumors.

Translocation renal cell carcinoma (tRCC) is a type of kidney cancer that arises when a gene called TFE3 on the X chromosome fuses with another gene on either the X chromosome or an autosome, as non-sex chromosomes are called. Unlike most kidney cancers, tRCC occurs mainly in female individuals, though why this is the case has never been clear. Now, a new study from Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovator Srinivas R.

Patients with kidney disease who are undergoing dialysis often need to take a drug called a calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR) agonist to regain normal calcium levels in their blood. Unfortunately, inhibiting CaSR can sometimes reduce calcium levels too much, resulting in a condition known as hypocalcemia that carries serious adverse side effects. A major question in pharmacology, then, is how to modulate CaSR activity such that patients receive the benefits and not the risks.

Research has uncovered many strategies that cancer cells use to survive and proliferate in the body, from rewiring their metabolism to recruiting neighboring healthy cells to suppress the immune system. Recently, Damon Runyon alumnus and current Innovation Award Committee Member Howard Y. Chang, MD, PhD, and his colleagues at Stanford University, including Damon Runyon Fellow Xiaowei Yan, PhD, unveiled yet another strategy.