Utthara Nayar

Utthara Nayar is a cancer researcher based in Boston, Massachusetts.[1] Her work focuses specifically on breast cancer.[2]

Biography

Nayar lived in the country of Oman during her childhood.[2] She was encouraged to participate in science, with her passion being in biology and physics.[2]

For her undergraduate degree Nayar attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a part of their biology Honors Program with a major in biology.[2] She earned her doctorate through Weill Cornell Medical College.[1] She is employed at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as a researcher in the lab of Nikhil Wagle.[2][3] She is also a member of a team at Harvard Medical School as a research affiliate.[4]

Research

At the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Nayar and her team have been investigating metastatic breast cancer and how hormones affect patient treatment.[2] For some forms of breast cancer a patient is ER positive, or estrogen receptor positive, meaning that tumors grow as the levels of estrogen in the body increase.[2] For this type of breast cancer, patients quickly become resistant to the treatment methods available and their bodies stop responding to any medical help they receive, seemingly without any connection.[3][4] However, Nayar and her team found a link in patients who became resistant to ER positive treatment- many had HER-2 gene mutations.[3] This possible discovery has spurred on a five-year phase 2 trial by Nayar and her team, investigating the connection between ER positive treatment rejection and the HER-2 gene.[5]

Publications
Journal Publications
Year Publication
2013 Nayar, U., Pin Lu, Goldstein, R. L., Vider, J., Ballon, G., Rodina, A., ... Cesarman, E. (2013). Targeting the Hsp90-associated viral oncoproteome in gammaherpesvirus-associated malignancies. Blood, 122(16), 2837–2847. https://doi.org/10.1182/blood-2013-01-479972[6]
2017 Nayar, U., Sadek, J., Reichel, J., Hernandez-Hopkins, D., Akar, G., Barelli, P. J., ... Cesarman, E. (2017). Identification of a nucleoside analog active against adenosine kinase-expressing plasma cell malignancies. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 127(6), 2066–2080. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI83936[7]

Awards and recognition

In 2012 while at Cornell, Nayar was awarded the AACR-Aflac, Inc. Scholar-in-Training Award.[1]

In 2018 while working at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Nayar was awarded the 2018 Women In Cancer Research Scholar Award by the American Association for Cancer Research for her work with breast cancer.[8]

References
  1. "Awards and Honors Across Weill Cornell Medical College". WCM Newsroom. Retrieved 2018-10-03.
  2. "Utthara Nayar is targeting cancer drug resistance". Broad Institute. 2018-03-19. Retrieved 2018-10-03.
  3. "Why Some Breast Cancer Becomes Resistant to Hormone Therapy". www.medscape.com. Retrieved 2018-10-03.
  4. "HER-2 mutations linked to hormone therapy resistance in breast cancer subtype". Retrieved 2018-10-03.
  5. "Fulvestrant plus neratinib reversed treatment-acquired HER2 mutations in metastatic ER+ breast cancer". pm360online.com. Retrieved 2018-10-04.
  6. Nayar, Utthara; Lu, Pin; Goldstein, Rebecca L.; Vider, Jelena; Ballon, Gianna; Rodina, Anna; Taldone, Tony; Erdjument-Bromage, Hediye; Chomet, Max (2013-10-17). "Targeting the Hsp90-associated viral oncoproteome in gammaherpesvirus-associated malignancies". Blood. 122 (16): 2837–2847. doi:10.1182/blood-2013-01-479972. ISSN 0006-4971. PMC 3798998. PMID 23943653.
  7. Nayar, Utthara; Sadek, Jouliana; Reichel, Jonathan; Hernandez-Hopkins, Denise; Akar, Gunkut; Barelli, Peter J.; Sahai, Michelle A.; Zhou, Hufeng; Totonchy, Jennifer (2017-05-15). "Identification of a nucleoside analog active against adenosine kinase–expressing plasma cell malignancies". Journal of Clinical Investigation. 127 (6): 2066–2080. doi:10.1172/jci83936. ISSN 0021-9738. PMC 5451239. PMID 28504647.
  8. "2018 Women in Cancer Research Scholar Awards". www.aacr.org. Retrieved 2018-10-03.
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