Alexandra Bennion Wins 2023 Biology Faculty Award
Alexandra Bennion Receives Biology Faculty Award
Alexandra won the 2023 Biology Faculty Award for the outstanding research that she conducted as part of the Devi Laboratory. She is grateful for Dr. Devi’s mentorship throughout her undergraduate experience studying biology and is excited to continue breast cancer research with the Devi Lab as a Mitchell Scholar. Her senior thesis called “Visualizing and quantifying tumor-macrophage interactions: Real-time imaging of inflammatory breast cancer and macrophages in the local tumor microenvironment” was also awarded high distinction in biology.
Rare Disease Day Tabling Event 2023
Duke and NCCU students collaborate to honor Rare Disease Day
The Duke Consortium for IBC partnered with the Duke Student-led Rare Cancer and Health Disparity Coalition on Rare Disease Day to raise awareness for rare cancers and educate on the health disparities surrounding rare cancers by building connections between undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, clinicians, researchers, patients, and patient advocates at Duke and North Carolina Central University (NCCU). The Duke Chronicle covered the successful event.
Dr. Devi Presents at the Translational Science Scientific Program
Gayathri Devi Presents at Translational Science 2022 Scientific Program
At the 2022 Translational Science Scientific Program, Dr. Gayathri Devi presented as a part of the “Race2Care: Community Engaged Research Made to Address Rare Cancer Health Disparities” panel alongside Drs. Anh Tran and Greg Sawin, Terry Arnold, and Kevin Williams.
Alexandra Bennion Wins Mitchell Scholarship
Duke Senior Awarded George J. Mitchell Scholarship To Study In Ireland | Duke Today
Alexandra Bennion is one of 12 Americans awarded the prestigious Mitchell Scholarship! As an undergraduate researcher, Alex makes invaluable contributions to our work and research in the Devi Lab.
Dr. Dent Wins Pioneer Award
Our Clinical Director, Dr. Susan Dent, was honored with the International Cardio-Oncology Society’s Thomas L. Force Pioneer Award. The announcement includes a wonderful video highlighting her impressive body of work. International CardioOncology Society, North America (ic-os.org)
Dr. Dent is Lead Investigator for Duke on New Grant
IBC Consortium Clinical Director Susan Dent, MD, is the lead investigator for patients enrolled at Duke in a new study, “Cardiac Outcomes With Near Complete Estrogen Deprivation” (CROWN). The study will include 90 women, age 55 and under, who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. This5-year, $3.1 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will enable researchers from Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist’s NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center and Duke Cancer Institute to collaborate in a first-of-its-kind prospective study to look for the earliest signs of heart vessel damage in young, pre-menopausal breast cancer survivors.
Dr. Devi Joins Women in Endocrinology (WE)
Dr. Gayathri Devi is awarded the Early Career Mentoring Award from Duke University
Gayathri Devi, Faculty Director of the Duke-NCCU Bridge Office, is currently serving as the Mentoring Committee Chair for Women in Endocrinology (WE). WE is an organization devoted to promoting and facilitating the professional development and advancement of women in the field of Endocrinology.
New Article: Social Stress Factors Drive Cancer Mechanisms that Help Explain Racial Disparities
Social Stress Factors Drive Cancer Mechanisms that Help Explain Racial Disparities
Chronically stressful conditions of daily life such as racism, pollution and poverty have a direct impact on the cellular mechanisms that drive lethal, invasive forms of breast cancer, according to a study led by Duke Cancer Institute researchers. Publishing June 13 in the journal npj Breast Cancer, the findings provide insight into one of the most pervasive health disparities between White and Black people. Among aggressive subtypes like triple negative and inflammatory breast cancers, Black women have higher incidences and lower survival rates than White women. Devi and colleagues, using The Cancer Genome Atlas, identified specific genes from a set of 226 genetic patterns of adaptive stress response that differ depending on the breast cancer subtype. These stress response genes play functional roles in cancer development, including cell life cycles, DNA damage response, signaling pathways, and regulation of cell death-related processes.
American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting and Duke Visible Event
AACR – April 8-13, 2022, Duke Visible Thinking – April 18, 2022
Seayoung Lee, an undergraduate researcher in the Devi lab, was invited to been invited to present for the second time at the Undergraduate Student Caucus and Poster Session for the AACR Annual Meeting 2022 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Last year, she was honored as an AACR Undergraduate Scholar, which allowed her to attend the virtual conference last year and in-person conference this year fully funded. This year she presented the poster “Targeting X-Linked Inhibitor of Apoptosis Protein Suppresses Formation of Inflammatory Breast Cancer Tumor Organoids.” Seayoung stated, “As the AACR meeting is the focal point for the cancer research community, I was honored and inspired as a cancer researcher to be at the junction where scientists, clinicians, other health care professionals, survivors, patients, and advocates gather to share the latest advances in cancer science and medicine.” Seayoung also presented the poster at Duke as part of the university’s Visible Thinking event on April 18, 2022, just a few weeks before she graduated with a BS in Biology with distinction.
Wins Pioneer Award Association for Clinical and Translational Science Annual Meeting
April 20, 2022
Dr. Devi presented as part of a panel discussion titled “Rare2Care: Community Engaged Research Made to Address Rare Cancer Health Disparities” joined Greg Sawin and Anh Tran, both Associate Professors in Family Medicine and Community Health at Duke School of the Medicine; The IBC Network Foundation’s Terry Arnold; and Kevin Williams, Merck Distinguished Professor in Integrated Biosciences at North Carolina Central University. Objectives for the panel included gaining strategies for effective longitudinal community coalition building; delineating unique challenges leading to these rare cancer health disparities; and understanding the use of mixed methods and community engagement principles to address awareness, diagnosis, care coordination, and clinical trial recruitment.
