Bhairavi Tolani, Ph.D. Awarded Hellman Family Early Career Faculty Award

UCSF Assistant Professor Bhairavi Tolani, Ph.D., a member of the UCSF Thoracic Oncology Lab, was awarded the Hellman Family - Early Career Faculty Award for 2019-2020. 

Established by Warren & Chris Hellman and their children in 1994, the purpose of the Hellman Fellows Program is to support the research of promising assistant professors who show capacity for great distinction in their chosen fields of endeavor. Dr. Tolani received this prestigious award for the study of autophagy as a therapeutic strategy in pancreatic cancer.   

Dr. Tolani’s research is focused on developing targeted therapies, small molecule inhibitors and biologics, for several types of cancer including pancreatic. 90% of all pancreatic cancers are pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDAC). As PDACs are amongst the most lethal malignancies, there is an urgent need for treatment. Conventional standards of care, including surgery, and current treatment of these cancers are unsatisfactory and new therapeutic strategies which achieve durable responses are needed.The lab uses a novel approach of targeting autophagy (a form of self-cannibalism) as a therapeutic strategy. Autophagy, or ‘self-eating’, is a cellular self-digestion or waste-disposal process that targets material for degradation and recycling.The hope is that knowledge gained from these investigations could open new therapeutic avenues for personalized treatment for patients with deadly PDACs.  

Dr. Tolani’s research is supported with funding and laboratory space by a world-renowned leader in thoracic oncology, David M. Jablons, M.D., Program Leader in Thoracic Oncology, Chief of General Thoracic Surgery, and Director of the Thoracic Oncology Lab at UCSF.