Nagarajan Kannan, Ph.D., Receives Awards for Breast Cancer Research

By April Josselyn • September 25, 2017

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Nagarajan (Raj) Kannan, Ph.D., Senior Associate Consultant in the Division of Experimental Pathology, has been awarded two awards for his breast cancer research efforts. Dr. Kannan received the 2017 Career Enhancement Award from the Mayo Clinic Breast Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) for his research, “Precision Prevention of Breast Cancer in High-Risk Individuals,” and the 2017 New Investigator Pilot Project Award from the 2017 Eagles 5th District Cancer Telethon Cancer Research Awards for his research, “Development of a Platform to Test Proliferative and Early Chemopreventive Responses in Oncogenic BRCA Breast Tissues.”

Career Enhancement Award
Recipients of the Breast Cancer SPORE Career Enhancement Award become active members of all relevant activities of the SPORE at Mayo Clinic. The ultimate expectation is that recipients develop sufficient preliminary data and a research plan to design a competitive grant proposal and obtain extramural funding through a grant in breast cancer from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

New Investigator Pilot Project Award
The Eagles Fund Pilot Awards are granted for novel, exploratory, and developmental research projects. They provide support for the generation of preliminary data leading to the submission of competitive peer-reviewed grant applications as well as high-risk proposals that, if successful, may lead to NIH or other peer-reviewed funding. Eligible applicants must not have had a previous Eagles Pilot Award or have been previously funded by an R21 or R01 grant mechanism.

About Dr. Kannan
Dr. Kannan holds the academic rank of Assistant Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology from the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. Dr. Kannan completed his doctoral training in molecular medicine at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, followed by six years of postdoctoral experience in stem cell biology at the Terry Fox Laboratory in Vancouver.

About the Career Enhancement Program
The Breast Cancer SPORE Career Enhancement Program is focused on identifying and mentoring faculty with the greatest potential of developing independent programs in translational breast cancer research, including laboratory investigators or clinicians with evidence of research productivity and clear potential and commitment to translational research in breast cancer.

About the Eagles Fund Awards
Through the support of the Eagles 5th District Cancer Telethon, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center is able to provide competitive funding opportunities for cancer investigators in three ways: Eagles fellowships, New Investigator Pilot Awards, and Established Investigator Pilot Awards.

April Josselyn

April Josselyn is a Marketing Channel Manager at Mayo Clinic Laboratories. She has worked at Mayo Clinic since 2012. Outside of work, April enjoys the outdoors and being "hockey mom" for her two sports-crazed boys.