Research will shine light on skin cancer prevention - The Hormel Institute’s Dr. Liu awarded skin cancer research grant

Gail Dennison, MA, CFRE
gaildenn@umn.edu
507 437 9604

Brenna Gerhart
bgerhart@umn.edu
507 437 9601

March 13, 2019 (Austin, Minnesota) – The Hormel Institute’s newest lab leader, Dr. Liang Liu, was just awarded a grant for an innovative skin cancer research project from Prevent Cancer Foundation.  Dr. Liu leads the "Chromatin and Epigenetic Gene Regulation" lab, and currently focuses on skin cancer research involving UV-induced skin cancer. The grant from Prevent Cancer Foundation awards Dr. Liu $100,000 over two years for the project “A novel UV signature for assessing skin UV damage and cancer risk.”

Skin cancer is by far the most common type of cancer, with numbers increasing each year. Dr. Liu’s research project will develop a test to help determine skin cancer risk for sunburn patients. With this research, Dr. Liu will aim to identify people at high risk of skin cancer, and provide more understanding of how to prevent and control cancer from progressing.

“Skin cancer prevention remains a challenging task mainly due to the lack of quantitative and objective methods for accurate risk assessment,” said Dr. Liu. “This award from the Prevent Cancer Foundation allows us to validate a UV biomarker panel that will facilitate future development of a new and reliable diagnostic method to fulfill this unmet need in skin cancer prevention.”

The Hormel Institute is a world recognized leader in skin cancer research, with many research studies published in leading cancer research journals and a dermatology clinic currently in development on the east end of the building.

The Hormel Institute’s standing as a leader in skin cancer research is part of what brought Dr. Liang Liu to The Hormel Institute. Dr. Liu is the most recent section leader to join The Hormel Institute, arriving in January 2019. Dr. Liu was previously at Columbia University, an Ivy League university in New York City. The Hormel Institute is regularly hiring new staff and faculty to fill the labs built in the last expansion.

About The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota

The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota is a leading cancer research department of UMN and part of the Masonic Cancer Center, an NCI Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. Collaborative research partners with Mayo Clinic, Zhengzhou University, MD Anderson, Columbia University, University of Arizona and more renowned centers worldwide, The Hormel Institute tripled in size in 2008 and again doubled in size in 2016. Currently the faculty and staff are comprised of 130 leading cancer research scientists and 14 cancer research sections. Over the next few years, The Hormel Institute UMN will add another 130 new faculty and staff jobs as part of its expansion as it continues to perform world-class research in the quest to prevent and control cancer.