Leanne Li rewarded by the Pfizer Research Award

© 2014 EPFL
Leanne Li is a young researcher at EPFL’s Merc Serono Oncology Chair, and a laureate of the 2014 Pfizer Research Award. The award recognizes her discovery of a protein that plays an important role in the malignancy of cancer.
This protein, called NMDAR, is mostly present in neurons and binds to glutamate in order to transmit nerve impulses. Leanne Li’s work showed that it is also found in some cancers, especially where tumors spread most aggressively. In particular, Leanne Li discovered that the glutamate/NMDAR bond produces compounds that act as messagers and stimulate the proliferation and propagation of cancerous cells. By blocking the protein with an inhibitor in vitro, she was able to slow their reproduction and keep them from spreading.
The Pfizer Research Award is one of the main distinctions awarded in Swiss medical research. Every year since 1991, it has recognized the achievements of young scientists that work in Swiss research institutes or hospitals and to contribute major path-opening advances in the fields of fundamental or clinical research.
Through her research, Leanne Li opened the way towards the development of treatments that take advantage of a novel anti-cancer mechanism that could lead to a new weapon in the battle against cancer.