Brian C. Capell, MD, PhD, Receives Award for Skin Cancer Research
Posted: Thursday, September 6, 2018
Brian C. Capell, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Dermatology at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has received a Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award for 2018. The award comes with a $450,000 unrestricted research grant over 3 years. Dr. Capell plans to use the funds to continue his research into epigenetic targets in the skin, specifically in the hope of developing effective therapies for squamous cell carcinoma. Dr. Capell is one of six researchers in the United States to receive the award this year.
The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation grants the Clinical Investigator Award to early-career physician-scientists who are conducting patient-oriented cancer research at major research centers under the mentorship of the nation’s leading scientists and clinicians. The program is intended to help address the shortage of physicians capable of translating scientific discovery into new breakthroughs for individuals with cancer.
Dr. Capell has studied epigenetic markers in the skin to better understand their function and how they differ in healthy, sun-damaged, and cancerous skin. He ultimately hopes to use this knowledge to identify targets for topical skin cancer treatments.