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Congratulations to Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Scholar Natarajan Kannan, whose work tracing the origins of a protein family that plays a key role in communicating environmental signals in the cell has been recognized by the National Science Foundation:

[Kannan]will use $969,822 provided by the NSF CAREER Award program over the next five years to gain an in-depth understanding of the evolution of kinases, a protein that controls cellular signaling pathways. The results could help researchers develop new strategies for treating a variety of diseases.

"Kinases are involved in a multitude of diseases, including cancer and Alzheimer's," said Kannan, an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and a member of the UGA Institute of Bioinformatics. "A deeper understanding of the evolutionary design principles will provide new avenues for targeting these proteins in disease states."

Image: University of Georgia