Yale researcher receives award to investigate “dark matter” of the human genome

Source: Yale Daily News, February 2022

Sarah Slavoff, an associate professor of chemistry and of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, won the 2022 Emerging Leader Award from the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research for her work studying the “dark matter” of the human genome.

Slavoff, who was also recognized for the potential implications of her research in the fight against melanoma, will receive an annual grant of $250,000 for three years. The award will fund her project to investigate proteins that have not yet been identified and their links to melanoma, a type of severe skin cancer.

“The work for the Mark Foundation is going to allow us to really deeply identify these genes that are associated with melanoma treatment resistance, or novel unannotated genes, to fully demonstrate their mechanisms of action so that we can understand what they’re doing and how that’s affecting the tumor cells,” Slavoff said.

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