GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WZZM) - A recent discovery at the Van Andel Institute shows how cancer touches everyone, including the scientists fighting the disease.
In a press release from the VAI, researchers report a discovery of a potential drug target for the NK/T-Cell lymphoma. Lymphoma is a cancer that begins in the immune system. NK/T-cell lymphoma is an aggressive form of the disease with a poor prognosis that is rare in the United States, though prevalent throughout much of Asia.
The only case of NK/T-cell lymphoma ever recorded in Grand Rapids claimed the life of Dr. Han-Mo Koo, a researcher at the VAI in 2004 at the age of 40.
"The passing of my colleague, whom I was very close to, was the reason that I started studying NK/T-cell lymphoma. It has been a complicated puzzle, but I feel that we have pieced together enough that we will have an impact on a large number of patients with the disease," said Bin Tean Teh, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Cancer Center Singapore-Van Andel Research Institute Translational Research Laboratory at the NCCS, and professor at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore.
For more details on the science involved in the discovery, click here.
The Van Andel Institute has established an annual Han-Mo Koo Memorial Award and Lecture to honor the memory of Han-Mo Koo by supporting research that aligns with his scientific legacy.
On May 23, Phillip A. Sharp, Ph.D., winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of RNA splicing, was honored at Van Andel Institute as the first recipient of the Han Mo Koo Memorial Award.