KESHAV K. SINGH, Ph.D., has joined the UAB
Comprehensive Cancer
Center as senior scientist
in the Cancer Cell Biology
Program, director of the
Cancer Genetics Program,
and Joy and Bill Harbert
Endowed Chair in Cancer
Genetics.
A leader in the field of cancer genet-
ics, mitochondrial genetics and “interge-
nomic” cross talk between mitochondria
and the nucleus, Dr. Singh also is a pro-
fessor in the departments of Genetics,
Pathology and Environmental Health.
Dr. Singh obtained his undergradu-
ate degree from Rohilkhand University,
and a master’s degree from G.B.
Pant University of Agriculture and
Technology, both in Uttar Pradesh,
India. He earned his Ph.D. from the
University of Wollongong in South
Wales, Australia. He was trained as
a postdoctoral fellow at
Harvard University and
served as an assistant
professor of oncology
at the Sidney-Kimmel
Comprehensive Cancer
Center at Johns Hopkins
School of Medicine. Most
recently he was at Roswell
Park Cancer Institute,
where he was a distinguished professor
of oncology.
Dr. Singh’s basic research focuses
on the underlying mechanisms of
mitochondria-to-nucleus retrograde
signaling, “intergenomic” cross talk, and
genomic instability and its role in cancer
and other human diseases. Dr. Singh’s
translational research includes develop-
ing agents and methods that can detect
and reverse mitochondrial defects in
cells and identify potential “mitomuta-
gens,” which may contribute to develop-
ment of human pathologies.
l quick takes RESEARCH BRIEFS
Singh Joins UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center
Gene Variant Could Increase Chances of Prostate Cancer Development
Pressey Receives ACS Award for Improving Quality of Life JOSEPH PRESSEY, M.D., has been awarded the American Cancer Society’s
2011 Lane Adams Quality of Life Award.
Dr. Pressey is an assistant professor of
hematology-oncology at UAB, an associ-
ate scientist in the UAB Comprehensive
Cancer Center and a physician at
Children’s Hospital of Alabama. He was
nominated for this national award by his
patients and their families because of his
“compassionate,
skilled cancer
care and for
extending the
warm hand of
service.”
The Lane Adams Award promotes an
improved quality of life for all persons
with cancer and their families though pub-
lic recognition of exemplary individuals.
A FAT-CELL GENE linked to colon and breast cancer development now is linked to prostate
cancer in overweight people in a new study
by Boris Pasche, M.D., professor of medicine
and director of the Division of Hematology-
Oncology at UAB.
Dr. Pasche, a senior author on the study and
UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center senior
scientist, says that while everyone has the adi-
ponectin gene, some have a variant linked to a
40 percent increase in the chances of developing
prostate cancer. Dr. Pasche says that, if duplicat-
ed, the findings, published in the March online
edition of the journal Metabolism – Clinical and
Experimental, could be used for risk-identifica-
tion testing.
“We want to be cautious because it is just one
study, but it is exciting,” he says.
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