Yin Lin, PhD, an assistant investigator at Baylor Institute for Immunology Research (BIIR), recently received a $150,000 grant from the Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center.
The two-year grant will support Dr. Lin’s research on the genetic regulatory mechanisms of multiple myeloma. Multiple myeloma (MM) is a malignant abnormal growth of plasma cells in the bone marrow. It can lead to bone marrow failure and bone destruction. Each year in the U.S., there are around 22,350 new cases of MM and about 10,710 deaths, according to the American Cancer Society.
“Multiple myeloma is highly treatable with current therapies but rarely curable”, says Dr. Lin. “Therefore, we need to find new ways to treat this cancer, and to do this we must know the underlying molecular mechanisms.
“The goals of our research are to better understand multiple myeloma, identify new targets for genome-based therapeutics and provide alternative panels of molecular biomarkers. We are collaborating with other BIIR investigators as well as Baylor clinicians for these endeavors.”
Dr. Lin earned his bachelor of science degree in biochemistry from the University of California, San Diego, and his doctorate degree in molecular biology from the University of California, Los Angeles. He returned to the University of California, San Diego, as a postdoctoral fellow, under the mentorship of Dr. Cornelis Murre, where he studied cancer and molecular immunology. While there, he was a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Fellow of the National Cancer Institute.
The title of Dr. Lin’s Sammons Cancer Center grant is "The molecular mechanism of regulatory elements in multiple myeloma."
Baylor Institute for Immunology Research (www.biir.org) is the immunology component of Baylor Research Institute, a division of Baylor Scott & White Health and is considered one of the top translational human immunology programs in the world. BIIR has programs in infectious disease, cancer vaccines, autoimmunity, organ transplantation, asthma and allergy. The goal of BIIR is to quickly translate important research discoveries from the ‘bench to the bedside’ to improve patient care and prevent the causes of diseases before they occur.
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