"As one of the first Sontag Distinguished Scientist Awardees, I was able to see Rick Sontag's extraordinary vision. He is an outstanding and devoted leader with the magnificent dream to inspire the people around him. The funding I received helped me to also pursue my bold ideas to cure brain cancer as well. "

About DSA-Funded Research

Dr. Ye's lab at Emory University studied neurotrophin signalings in neuronal cell survival and drug discovery in neuroprotection to dissect the physiological roles of PIKE in tumorigenesis and anti-cancer drug development. His lab wanted to determine the neuronal cell death molecular mechanisms of neuroexcitotoxicity and stroke in central nervous system and drug discovery. Dr. Ye's Sontag project wanted to define the role of PIKE-A in Akt activation in order to lead to a better understanding of the cellular functions of PIKE-A in tumorigenesis and tumor progression, and provide the basis for identification of novel drug targets for the treatment of brain tumor patients.