Pei-Yin Hsu, a graduate student in the department of Molecular Medicine, has just been selected for a Graduate School
of Biomedical Sciences Travel Award.

“Pei was selected for funding based on her excellent academic record and standing in the scientific community,” said Dr. Sophie
Pina, assistant dean in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at UT Health Science Center at San Antonio.

She will be using the travel award to travel to the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting in April at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. Her mentor is Dr. Tim Hui-Ming Huang.

“I would like to go to get the most up to date research on breast cancer,” Hsu said. “I want to learn new tools and also learn from others who are doing similar work.”

Hsu is currently working to identify how long-term estrogen predisposure will identify carcinogenesis.

“Our data indicates that if a mom during her pregnancy is exposed to distant estrogen response elements (DEREs) compounds, it may increase their daughter or even granddaughter’s risk,” Hsu said. “We are focused on identifying these mechanisms especially the epigenetic regulation machinery.”

Hsu explained that as a female researcher working in her lab, she feels passionate about finding new therapies or ways to prevent breast cancer.

“I think that the current strategies for breast cancer are not going in the right direction, we have a high breast cancer rate in this country,” Hsu said. “I hope that my research will eventually become a therapy.”

At the AACR Annual Meeting, Hsu will be presenting a poster on her research as well as going to lectures to learn more.

“I’m not only going to focus on breast cancer lectures, I’d like to go other interesting talks and learn about other models,” Hsu said. “Seeing other people’s helps me because different cancer models may share similar mechanisms so I can see how other studies can be linked to translational research and the application field.”

Besides learning from others at the conference, Hsu is excited to go to Philadelphia.

“I’ve never been to Philadelphia before,” Hsu said. “I’ve been to Washington D.C. before and I’ve always wanted to go to Philadelphia to do a history tour.”