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Two U-M Rogel Cancer Center Research Projects Compete in STAT Madness

Date Visible: 
03/03/2020 - 11:15am

Media contact: Ian Demsky, 734-764-2220 |  Patients may contact Cancer AnswerLine, 800-865-1125

UPDATE

The University of Michigan no longer has any teams competing in STAT Madness. The team led by Costas Lyssiotis, Ph.D. made it to Round 4. We are proud of the research done at the University of Michigan and are particularly proud for those who were recognized in this national competition.

STAT Madness sponsored by Millipore Sigma

Researchers from Michigan Medicine and College of Engineering studying depression, pancreatic cancer and cancer diagnostics compete in just-for-fun STAT Madness tournament

College basketball fans have March Madness. But for fans of medical research, there’s nothing like STAT Madness, an online tournament of science run by the STAT health news organization.

This year, the tournament bracket includes three teams of University of Michigan scientists, physicians and engineers. Can one of them make it all the way, and defend the tournament title that Michigan scientists won last year?

It all depends on how many members of the public vote for these true-blue entries:

  • Pancreatic cancer treatment resistance: A team led by Costas Lyssiotis, Ph.D. in the Rogel Cancer Center and Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology, made the bracket for a study that shows why pancreatic cancer cells stubbornly resist treatment with a common chemotherapy drug. It could pave the way to better treatment options. Learn more about the work, which was published in Cell Metabolism.
  • Liquid biopsy technology: A joint Engineering/Rogel Cancer Center team led by Eusik Yoon, Ph.D. with former Rogel director Max Wicha, M.D., made it to Round 2. Read more about the work, published in Nature Communications.
  • Effects of intense stress on DNA: A team led by Srijan Sen, M.D., Ph.D., of the Depression Center, Department of Psychiatry and Michigan Neuroscience Institute, showed that new doctors’ DNA ages six times faster than normal during their first year of residency, thanks to the intense stress of their training. This project made it to Round 3. The research, published in Biological Psychiatry, has implications for understanding vulnerability to depression; read more about it.

The tournament will continue through March, and anyone can sign up to receive updates when each new round of voting begins. On social media, the #STATMadness hashtag will give quick access to the latest updates from STAT and from the U-M social accounts that will share updated and encourage voting in each round.

The field of competitors will narrow week by week until the final two teams are standing -- right at the end of basketball’s March Madness in early April.

In addition to last year’s title, claimed by a team led by Susan Shore, Ph.D., of Otolaryngology, Michigan Medicine made it to the Round of 8 in STAT Madness 2018 with an entry focused on antibiotic-resistant microbes in nursing homes. In the first year of the tournament, U-M researchers who study the microbes that inhabit human lungs made it to the final round.

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