By TRACEY DRURY
tdrury@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1609

A researcher at Roswell Park Cancer Institute will share in a $17.6 million federal grant award, with more than $4.5 million coming to the Buffalo hospital.

Joseph Lau, an associate member in the department of molecular and cellular biology, will share the seven-year Program of Excellence Award from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

The grant will support the team's investigations in glycobiology, the study of the role sugars play in biologic processes. It is one of just five Program of Excellence in Glycobiology awards for glycosciences given nationwide.

It also supports training of investigators and provides core resources to help the centers and other research institutions accelerate breakthroughs in glycobiology-based diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease.

The researchers are working to define how sugar modifications regulate the production of blood cells and how those cells could be modified for therapeutic effect, such as treatment for leukemia and other blood cancers, or to improve outcomes in bone-marrow transplantation.

Lau is a member of Roswell's Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapeutics Program. His team includes three researchers: Michael Nemeth, assistant member in the department of medicine, working on blood stem cells; Khushi Matta, a member in the department of cancer biology, working on sugar chemistry; and Song Liu, an assistant member in the department of biostatistics, working on biostatistical data analysis.

The team also will rely on the efforts of Sriram Neelamegham, a professor in the University at Buffalo department of chemical and biological engineering, who will generate computer models during the project.

The team will collaborate with lead researcher Dr. Robert Sackstein and Dr. Karin Hoffmeister, both of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital; and Vernon Reinhold of the University of New Hampshire.