Congratulations to Postdoctoral Fellow Lucas Trucco, who fought tough competition to be selected for an American Association for Cancer Research- Pezcoller Foundation Scholar-in-Training Award.

These prestigious awards are presented to those with high-quality abstracts and applications from a large candidate pool.  Lucas, who is based in the Molecular Oncology group led by Richard Marais, will present his poster “Melanocyte specific deletion of Map3k1 reveals its role in BRAFV600E-driven melanoma” at the AACR Annual Meeting in April this year.

The group focuses on studying the role of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) in melanoma development, and Lucas’ work in particular established a connection between the most frequent oncogene in melanoma BRAF(V600E), UVR and the MAP3K1 kinase.

Lucas will receive $1,500 to enable him to attend the 2019 AACR Annual Meeting, taking place March 29 – April 3 in Atlanta, USA. This award will provide him with the fantastic opportunity to share his research findings with an international cancer research community.

On hearing the news, Lucas says “I am delighted to receive this award that allows me to attend the AACR Annual Meeting 2019 in Atlanta. It will be my first time attending this leading international congress for cancer researchers, and a great opportunity to present and discuss my work with referents in the field and also a good chance for networking.”

Lucas will also attend a special Scholar-In-Training Awards reception where he will meet the other winners and award sponsor.