A new leader at Hormel Institute awarded major research grant

Published 8:10 am Tuesday, November 14, 2017

One of The Hormel Institute’s new section leaders, Dr. Ilana Chefetz, was recently awarded a coveted junior faculty grant from the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund Alliance (OCRFA).

The Liz Tilberis Award honors the OCRFA’s late president and provides a three-year grant of $150,000 per year. It is awarded to junior faculty with a strong commitment to ovarian cancer research.

“Our 2017 grantees are among the best and brightest working in the field,” said Dr. Jeff Boyd, professor and chair at Florida International University and the director of Translational Research and Genomic Medicine at the Miami Cancer Institute. “These research projects tackle the most pressing issues in ovarian cancer today, focusing largely on the biology of ovarian cancer, and especially on novel therapeutic approaches to advanced ovarian cancer, including immunotherapy.”

Email newsletter signup

Chefetz joined The Hormel Institute earlier this year and heads the cancer stem cells and necroptosis lab.

The grant will allow further research into chemotherapy resistance related to ovarian cancer stem-like cells. Not all cancer cells are similar — a small percentage, called cancer stem cells, has special capabilities that allow the cells to grow and become resistant to traditional cancer treatment drugs. Her research focuses on designing therapies to target these cells by initiating necroptosis (a form of cell death). She aims to eliminate conventional chemotherapy-resistant cells to prevent cancer recurrence in the patient.

Chefetz has a doctorate in genetics and molecular dermatology from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Department of Medicine and comes just prior from University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota is a leading cancer research department of University of Minnesota and part of the Masonic Cancer Center, a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center.

Chefetz obtained her bachelor’s degree in food engineering and biotechnology from Technion. She earned her doctorate with Eli Sprecher, working on a rare dermatology disorder, Familial Tumoral Calcinosis. As a graduate student she was awarded the Neeman Excellence Scholarship and Technion Woman Excellence Scientist Prize to continue for postdoctoral studies abroad.

After finishing her doctorate work, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Gil Mor at Yale Medical School where she was awarded three-year Life Science Postdoctoral Fellowship and was a recipient of 2010 AACR Scholar-in-Training Award.

After a postdoctoral position with Mor, Chefetz moved to the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center to work with Dr. Ron Buckanovich. Her research there focused on developing novel therapeutics which target ALDH, an enzyme in chemotherapy-resistant cancer stem-like cells.

At the University of Michigan she received the Ann and Sol Schreiber Mentored Investigator Award, the Foundation for Women’s Cancer WeRoc Research grant, and the Marsha Rivkin Center for Ovarian Cancer Pilot Award.

In addition, Dr. Chefetz was awarded University of Michigan 2015 Outstanding Postdoctoral Fellow prize, and in 2016 was promoted to a research assistant professor position.