Annette Boman Women’s Fellowship for Cancer Research

April 28 -- Bethany Nelson, a Ph.D. candidate in the Academic Health Center-Duluth Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Biophysics program since 2005, tonight was awarded the Annette Boman Women’s Fellowship for Cancer Research. Nelson graduated cum laude with a degree in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Superior where she was named a Swenson scholar.  During her year doing endocrine disruption research at the EPA, she became interested in molecular biology. She studies a hormone, fibroblast growth factor 21, and its effects on metabolism. The hormone is involved in the switch from using sugars as a fuel source to using lipids. Cancer cells use large amounts of glucose. By understanding the natural mechanisms to switch to lipids, new ways to starve cancers cells may be possible.

At the Annette Boman Fellowship event, Bethany thanked the audience with a personal touch:  “I am truly honored to be the recipient of this award. Cancer research has a special significance in my life as I have lost both of my grandmothers to cancer.  My maternal grandmother battled breast cancer for a large portion of my life.  I remember visiting with her and she asked me about my studies.  She told me how incredible she thought it was that I had the opportunity to become a scientist, as she felt she could only choose between being a teacher, a nurse and a mother. She became a nurse and after retirement, she independently researched herbal medicines and grew medicinal plants and made salves and tinctures.  As kids, we knew that what we called 'Grandma's green gunk' would heal our scrapes and cuts faster than any over-the-counter ointment.  I feel very privileged that I am able to follow after women such as Annette Boman and my grandmother.  It is women like them that have paved a way for me to have the opportunities I do and allow me to do the research that led to this fellowship award. I am very proud to be recognized with this fellowship.”

Also at the event, Doug Yee, M.D. gave a CME presentation: “Targeting the IGF System in Cancer”.  Dr. Yee is a Professor in the Department of Medicine/Hematology, Oncology, and Transplantation and Professor of Pharmacology. He is the: Director at the Masonic Cancer Center for the University of Minnesota–Minneapolis; the John H. Kersey Chair in Cancer Research; and Program Co-Leader, Women’s Cancer Research Program.  At least 50 people,  including medical school faculty and staff, friends and family of Annette Boman, and physicians from  St. Mary’s Duluth Clinic attended the event which was co-sponsored by SMDC.

With this fellowship, the AHC-Duluth and the medical school honor the memory of Annette Boman, a bright, intelligent medical researcher at the University of Minnesota Medical School – Duluth who died as a result of complications from cancer in 2003. Annette graduated summa cum laude with a degree in physics from Gustavus Adolphus College, earned a Ph.D. in biophysics from Johns Hopkins University, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health and at Emory University.  In 1998 she joined the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics as an assistant professor and to this day her legacy continues to influence researchers and students in her field.

Click here to support the Annette Boman Fellowship or call Michelle Juntunen,  218.726.6876 or maj@mmf.umn.edu.