Harold E. Eisenberg Research Scholar Award Announcement We are pleased to welcome Guang-Yu Yang, MD, PhD, a surgical pathologist and the Joseph C. Calandra Research Professor in the Department of Pathology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, as the inaugural Harold E. Eisenberg Research Scholar. Dr. Yang, a member of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, serves as the director of Surgical Pathology and the director of the Surgical Pathology/Gastrointestinal Pathology Fellowship Program. In addition to his clinical duties, Dr. Yang’s current research efforts include a focus on the molecular carcinogenesis and chemoprevention of gastrointestinal and pancreatobiliary cancers. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Yang has achieved tremendous research success in the field of inflammationinduced carcinogenesis and its chemoprevention. With the support of the Harold E. Eisenberg Foundation, Dr. Yang aims to develop a novel and effective strategy for the treatment of the highly lethal BRAF-mutant colorectal cancer. Colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death in the United States. BRAF-mutant colorectal cancer is a distinct subset representing about 10% of all colorectal cancer cases; however, BRAF-mutant colorectal cancers tend to be more poorly differentiated, more invasive, and have a poor prognosis. Furthermore, treatment of BRAF-mutant colorectal cancers has been challenging, with no meaningful clinical activity seen in patients treated with typical therapeutic options. Achieving a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms that make BRAF-mutant colorectal cancers distinct will provide significant rationale for designing more efficacious therapies and developing a panel of biomarkers to monitor disease progression and/or therapeutic effects in this subset of colorectal cancers. This is a highly collaborative project involving several investigators, including a basic researcher, pathologist, molecular pathologist, and surgical and medical oncologists. Through this pilot study, Dr. Yang aims to accumulate the significant preliminary data for a future RO1 application to the National Institutes of Health, with the ultimate goal to lead to clinical trial. The results from this study will greatly enhance the group’s understanding of the mechanism of mutant BRAF-driven gene methylation in colorectal cancer. Dr. Yang is the author of more than 120 peer-reviewed publications and six book chapters. He received his medical and doctorate degrees from China Medical University in Shenyang, China. He completed his residency at New York University Medical Center followed by the John H. Yardley Fellowship in Gastrointestinal Pathology at Johns Hopkins University.
