Oct. 2, 2018

The OHSU School of Medicine Alumni Council selected a paper by first author Archana Sehrawat, Ph.D., to receive its 2018 School of Medicine Alumni Association Postdoctoral Paper of the Year Award. 

The paper is entitled "LSD1 activates a lethal prostate cancer gene network independently of its demethylase function" and was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in March 2018. Read more about the paper.

Dr. Sehrawat is a postdoctoral research fellow in the lab of Joshi Alumkal, M.D., Wayne D. Kuni & Joan E. Kuni Foundation Endowed Chair for Prostate Cancer Research, associate professor of medicine and molecular and medical genetics, OHSU School of Medicine, and member of the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute.

Dr. Sehrawat will present her paper Wednesday, November 7, 4-5 p.m. in the Knight Cancer Research Building (KCRB), 1015 Auditorium, as part of the Knight Cancer Research Seminar Series. The alumni association will present her with the award at that time.

"There is an urgent need to identify drivers of castration-resistant prostate cancer, a lethal form of the disease, so we can develop new treatments," said Dr. Alumkal. "In Dr. Sehrawat's study, she identified a non-canonical function of the histone demethylase lysine specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) and demonstrated that this function was critical for survival of lethal prostate cancer cells. Her work provides a wholly new roadmap for targeting LSD1 in cancer -- blocking key protein-protein interactions or LSD1 protein stability."

Dr. Alumkal added, "The true impact of any biomedical research publication is clinical translation. Based on Dr. Sehrawat's results, we recently designed a first-in-man, phase I clinical trial with an LSD1 inhibitor very similar to SP-2509. That trial will enable us to confirm Dr. Sehrawat's preclinical results and hopefully develop a new treatment approach for men with lethal prostate cancer."

Dr. Sehrawat completed her Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology at University of North Texas Health Science Center. 

Recipients of the Postdoctoral Paper of the Year Award receive a $750 prize.