UW Scientist Receives Grant for Cancer Research

The American Cancer Society has awarded a $792,000 grant for cancer research to Daniel Levy, assistant professor in the University of Wyoming’s Department of Molecular Biology.

Levy’s research focuses on the cell’s nucleus. The nucleus is found in most cells and contains DNA. Scientists have known that the nucleus enlarges with a cancer diagnosis, and that has been used as a method to diagnose and stage the disease. Levy is investigating the change in the nucleus’s size to see if it’s important in the development and progression of cancer.

He also is working to understand the basic mechanisms of the nucleus, including the growth properties. Overall, Levy is looking at the functional activities that are relevant to cancer.

“My hope is that we can use some of the basic information on nuclear size regulation to develop new approaches to cancer treatment,” Levy says.

The American Cancer Society is the largest non-government, not-for-profit funding source of cancer research in the United States. The society’s research and training grants fund investigators at institutions across the United States. Public support of the American Cancer Society is helping support Levy’s research grant, which began July 1, 2015.

Since 1946, the American Cancer Society has funded research and training of health professionals to investigate the causes, prevention and early detection of cancer, as well as new treatments, cancer survivorship and end-of-life support for patients and their families. In those nearly 70 years, the American Cancer Society’s extramural research grants program has devoted more than $4 billion to cancer research and has funded 47 researchers who have won the Nobel Prize.

For more information about the American Cancer Society Research Program, visit www.cancer.org/research.

For more details about Levy’s research, visit www.uwyo.edu/news/index.html and scroll to “Top Stories.”