Kinesiology Professor Receives Competitive BBRC Grant

Dr. Kisuk Min, assistant professor of Kinesiology, was recently selected as one of three UTEP professors to receive a highly competitive $40,000 UTEP Border Biomedical Research Center (BBRC) Pilot Grant, funded through the NIH National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.

Min, a member of the 2020-21 UTEP NIH Jumpstart Program for promising junior research faculty, said that he was “surprised” to receive the email announcing the award, considering the number of applications that were submitted and the historically competitive nature of the grant.

During the one-year project timeframe, Min plans to collect preliminary data on the side effects of doxorubicin, a highly effective chemotherapeutic agent used to treat a variety of cancers. Min’s project will specifically analyze skeletal muscle damage following doxorubicin treatment, a critical issue causing impaired function and lower quality of life among patients and survivors.

Since 2002, the number of cancer survivors in El Paso has continued to increase due to the early detection of cancer and advances in treatment, eliciting interest in practitioners and researchers like Min to investigate quality of life issues. Despite substantial research efforts, the underlying mechanisms of doxorubicin-induced cardiac and skeletal muscle damage have not been fully elucidated. Min’s project aims to identify potential biological signaling pathways involved in doxorubicin-induced cytotoxicity in skeletal muscle. The results of his proposal will suggest a viable therapeutic strategy to prevent side effects of chemotherapy and to improve the quality of life of cancer patients and survivors.

Depending on the quality of the preliminary data Min expects to have this fall, he hopes to proceed with submitting a new project idea for an NIH grant.

Go Miners!