ARLINGTON, Va., August 3, 2016 – The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has selected four early career scientists to receive a total of $275,000 in research awards, including one winner of the ASTRO Junior Faculty Career Research Training Award and three recipients of ASTRO Resident/Fellows in Radiation Oncology Research Seed Grants. All winners will be recognized at ASTRO's 58th Annual Meeting, September 25-28, 2016, at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

"ASTRO awards and grants support work in the field of radiation and cancer biology, radiation physics and translational research," said ASTRO Chair Bruce D. Minsky, MD, FASTRO. "These grants have been given for over a decade. With these four grants this year, we are excited to continue to fund important research in radiation oncology as part of the Society's overall effort to prevent, treat and cure malignancies."

The ASTRO Junior Faculty Career Research Training Award gives early career physicians and researchers the opportunity to develop careers and focus on research relevant to radiation oncology, biology or physics. Recipients must be board-eligible physicians, physicists in radiation oncology or radiobiologists within the first three years of their junior faculty appointment. One junior faculty member was selected for this award, which provides $100,000 annually for two years.
The 2016 JFA grant recipient is Stephanie Markovina, MD, PhD, of Washington University/Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. Markovina served as chief resident and participated in the Holman Research Pathway during her clinical residency in radiation oncology at Washington University/Barnes-Jewish Hospital. She joined the faculty there as a physician scientist in 2015, and she is building her lab to study molecular mechanisms of radiation resistance in solid tumors, with a clinical focus on treating patients with anal cancer. Markovina is interested in understanding molecular mechanisms of radiation resistance in cervical cancer and other solid and HPV-related tumors. She will be investigating the role of the lysosome, a sub-cellular structure involved in protein breakdown, in tumor cell response to radiation and how these signaling pathways might be modulated in cervical cancer to increase the effectiveness of radiation and other anti-cancer therapies.

The ASTRO Resident/Fellows in Radiation Oncology Research Seed Award supports residents or fellows who are planning a career in basic science or clinical research in radiation oncology. Three researchers were selected for this award, which provides $25,000 per recipient for one year. The three 2016 Resident/Fellows in Radiation Oncology Research Seed Award recipients are:

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