Medical School receives cancer research grant

A research scientist at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield is receiving a three-year federal grant from the U.S. Army to study the gene that blocks the spread of breast cancer tumor cells in the body. The grant's total budget is $425,887.

Kounosuke Watabe, professor of medical microbiology, immunology and cell biology, is the principal investigator for the project. He also is a member of the SIU Cancer Institute

The study will look at how breast cancer cells spread from the primary tumor to distant organs. The majority of deaths of cancer patients are caused by metastasis or spreading of tumor cells. This research may lead to new treatments for the metastasis of breast cancer, which is the most common form of cancer among women in the U.S.

This is the 11th national grant awarded for Watabe's research. He has previously been funded for research focused on hepatitis and prostate cancer. His research, which totals $1.8 million, has been funded for nearly 20 years by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, United States Army, American Cancer Society and American Lung Association.

Watabe joined the Southern Illinois University Carbondale faculty in 1985. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He earned his doctorate, master's and bachelor's degrees at Kyoto University in Japan.