Mrinal Patnaik, M.B.B.S., receives Gerstner Family Career Development Award from Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine

Mrinal Patnaik, M.B.B.S. ((HEMO ’11), Division of Hematology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, received a Gerstner Family Career Development Award in Individualized Medicine from the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine.

Searching for treatment for a rare, aggressive blood cancer

Dr. Patnaik will use his award to define how the NRAS gene causes chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, and will use patient tumor samples grown in mouse models and petri dishes to evaluate the effectiveness of therapies.

Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia is a rare, aggressive blood cancer that affects people in their 70s. With no effective treatment available, most patients die within two years of diagnosis.

“This rare, aggressive blood cancer only affects four out of 100,000 people, but we see many of these patients at Mayo Clinic,” says Dr. Patnaik. “With the support provided by the Gestner Award, we will be able to address the urgent need to develop an effective treatment for this deadly disease.”

Each year Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine selects Gerstner Award recipients to promote a specialized workforce capable of moving individualized medicine from discovery into patient care. This initiative provides important seed money for early-stage investigators to conduct research to predict, prevent, treat and even cure disease through individualized therapies.