Desert Research Institute scientist wins grant

A Desert Research Institute scientist, Dr. Jianchang Yang, has been awarded a four-year, $720,000 grant from the American Cancer Society to study stem cell genes that could advance understanding of leukemia cancer cells.

“My main focus is on the role of a particular stem cell gene, SALL4,” Yang said Thursday.

The outcome of Yang’s stem cell research is aimed at determining new and nontoxic ways to kill leukemia at stem cell level, according to Greg Bortolin, a spokesman for the Desert Research Institute.

Bortolin said Yang is one of eight Desert Research Institute faculty investigators who worked as researchers at the Nevada Cancer Institute before its bankruptcy in December. Desert Research Institute’s faculty members are nontenured, entrepreneurial and responsible for their own salaries from external grants and contracts.

“It was a natural” for the Desert Research Foundation to expand its research, which had concentrated on the environment, into the medical arena, Bortolin said.

During the bankruptcy proceedings for the Nevada Cancer Institute, the clinical arm of the institute and its flagship building were sold to the University of California San Diego Health System, but the Ralph and Betty Engelstad Cancer Research Building that was part of the original Nevada Cancer Institute remained under control of an entity called the Nevada Cancer Institute Foundation and has a philanthropic mission.

Justine Harrison, executive director of the new foundation, which donated a portion of the building for use by the Desert Research Institute, said Jim and Heather Murren, founders of the original Nevada Cancer Institute, are proud that basic cancer research continues in Las Vegas, although not under the auspices of UC San Diego Nevada Cancer Institute, which chose to do clinical drug trial research in Las Vegas but not basic research.

“This is a continuance and expansion of the research done at the original Nevada Cancer Institute,” Harrison said. “We’re happy to have been able to donate wonderful facilities, resources and equipment that will be used for cancer research.”

Contact reporter Paul Harasim at pharasim@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2908.