Scientist of the Year: Dr. Anchit Khanna of the University of Tampere

The Finnish Union of University Researchers and Teachers has named the cancer researcher Dr. Anchit Khanna Scientist of the Year.  Dr. Khanna, 32, is currently working on his doctoral dissertation at the Institute of Biomedical Technology, University of Tampere. His research is concerned with the effect mechanisms and clinical significance of the recently identified CIP2A cancer gene. The dissertation will be held in December 2011.

Dr. Anchit Khanna has received numerous distinctions and awards at international scientific conferences in this highly significant field of medical science. He is an exemplary international researcher whose research discoveries have potential for clinical application in the cancer treatments of the future. The present award was announced on Wednesday at a young researchers’ club event of the Union of University Researchers and Teachers in Helsinki.

Dr. Khanna qualified as a medical practitioner from Bharti Vidyapeeth Deemed University, Pune, India, and specialized in Medical Genetics at the University of Glasgow. Since 2006 he worked in the research group led by Professor Jukka Westermark at the Institute of Biomedical Technology (IBT). Currently, he is working as a researcher in the group led by Professor Tapio Visakorpi, IBT.

In collaboration with the research group led by Professor Ari Ristimäki and Caj Haglund (University of Helsinki) Dr. Khanna has demonstrated a connection between cancer genes CIP2A and MYC. MYC is one of the most significant and studied cancer gene. Stomach cancer is the second most lethal type of cancer. A poor prognosis in certain subgroups of  patients with stomach cancer was also demonstrated to correlate with the activity of the CIP2A-MYC signal pathway. These discoveries were published in one of the leading scientific journals in cancer research. For this research Dr. Anchit Khanna received the CELL Press Special Commendation Award and the Pezcoller Foundation Best Poster Award at the annual European Association for Cancer Research (EACR) meeting in Lyon, France,2008. Additionally, in 2009, he was awarded the Young Cancer Researcher Award - Highly Commended by the EACR again in Berlin, Germany for the same work. In 2010, he was nominated for the prestigious Hamilton-Fairley Young Investigator Award  by the BACR (British Association for Cancer Research) at the National Cancer Research Institute, Liverpool, UK. In addition, in 2010, he was also selected for the International Talent Programme (ITP) for Life Sciences & Health organized by Hyphen Projects in cooperation with the Ministry of Economic Affair’s Innovation programme for Life Sciences & Health, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

In 2011 Dr. Khanna received the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) - GlaxoSmithKline Outstanding Clinical Scholars Award at the annual meeting of the association in recognition of the presentation of an outstanding proffered paper in clinical cancer research.  In this work he ascertained the significance of the overexpression of CIP2A protein in the pathogenesis and progression of several different types of cancers.  The discoveries made in this research have potential for applications in future cancer therapies and have been submitted for publication in a leading international journal. Dr. Khanna is the first Finnish researcher, completing a doctoral dissertation, to receive these awards.

The Union of University Researchers and Teachers decided on its choice at a meeting held in September.

Further information:
Dr. Anchit Khanna, tel. 050 381 4404

Chairman Tapani Kaakkuriniemi
(Union of University Researchers and Teachers)
Tel. 0400 309 005