New cancer research chair established at USask
An endowment created by the late Jean E. Murray—daughter of USask’s first President, Walter C. Murray—will help build cancer research capacity in the College of Medicine and improve outcomes for cancer patients in Saskatchewan.
We are grateful for donors like Jean E. Murray, for leaving a bequest that will enhance cancer research. The Jean E. Murray Chair in Cancer Research will carry out cancer research to advance the understanding of the causes and possible new therapies for cancer. The Chair position was established through a generous donation from the Murray Medical and Cancer Trust.
Cancer research is a top research priority at the College of Medicine. This initiative represents a unique partnership between the University of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency (SCA), and will further strengthen collaborations between the two organizations. The partnership will also highlight the value of cancer research in health care by engaging key stakeholders in cancer research.
The Division of Oncology is proud to welcome and congratulate Dr. Amitava Sengupta on his five-year appointment as the inaugural Jean E. Murray Chair in Cancer Research. He will join the college on April 1, 2021.
Sengupta is an associate professor and senior scientist at the Cancer Biology Division, Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata, where he is actively working on identifying molecular epigenetic vulnerabilities of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). He received his Masters’ of Science degree in biochemistry from the University of Calcutta, India and doctor of philosophy (PhD) in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and gene therapy from Jadavpur University, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, India. Sengupta then completed his postdoctoral fellowship in hematopoietic stem cell and leukemia from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio.