Patierno receives DOD grant to study prostate cancer

Steven Patierno, PhD, professor of medicine (Medical Oncology) and deputy director of the Duke Cancer Institute, will receive $830,000 in grant funding from the Department of Defense to support his study of the Validation and Interrogation of Differentially Expressed and Alternatively Spliced Genes in African-American Prostate Cancer. "This is a great testament to the collaborative environment at Duke and a growing recognition of health disparities as an important cross-cutting theme that can be embraced across the continuum from basic to community to population to translational to clinical sciences," said Dr. Patierno. Patierno – who also has appointments in Community and Family Medicine and Pharmacology and Cancer Biology – is partnering with Jenny Freedman and Dan George (Medical Oncology), Susan Murphy (Obstetrics and Gynecology, Center for Epigenetics/EpiGenomics), the laboratories of Mariano Garcia-Blanco (Molecular Genetics and Microbiology) and Bruce Sullenger (Surgery and DTMI) and several urologic surgeons in the Division of Urology.   Mary Klotman, MD, chair of the Department of Medicine, noted that this grant is a noteworthy accomplishment considering Patierno's major administrative responsibilities. "It's also an example of great science  that fits into Duke's portfolio of research that seeks to understand health disparities," she said.