Ohio Cancer Research is pleased to announce Saori Furuta, Ph.D. has been awarded research grant for her work in breast cancer research.
Saori Furuta, a native of Japan, received all her academic training in California. She obtained her B.S. in Biochemistry at University of California, Riverside; MS. In Chemistry & Biochemistry at California State University, Los Angeles, with honor, and Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at University of California, Irvine. During her graduate training, she was mentored by the pioneers of cancer biology, Jamil Momand (p53 and MDM2) and Wen-Hwa Lee (BRCA1/2 and RB1).
She then launched her postdoctoral training under a world-renowned breast cancer biologist Mina Bissell in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Bissell’s vision of ‘dynamic reciprocity’ of the three-dimensional tissue microenvironment completely changed Saori’s view of cell biology. She started studying the different mechanisms by which normal tissue microenvironment maintains homeostasis and exerts tumor suppression.
Furuta joined the faculty of the Department of Cancer Biology at University of Toledo in November 2015. In her laboratory at University of Toledo, she and her lab members are analyzing the roles of S-nitrosylation (covalent modification by nitric oxide) of proteins inside and outside the cell in the homeostasis of normal mammary biology and the relevance of its dysregulation to breast cancer initiation. She hopes that the seed money provided by the Ohio Cancer Research Grant will help her set up a solid foundation for this innovative project.
She lives with her husband, Robert, and 2 year-old daughter, June, in Sylvania, Ohio.
Congratulations to Mrs. Furuta. We are excited to see your project achieve tremendous success!
