City based medico gets International Honour

Ammannagari has been conferred as the winner of the E Donnall Thomas Outstanding Research Presentation Award for the year 2013

For Nischala Ammannagari, it has been quite a rewarding year. She is a second year medical resident undergoing training at Bassett Medical Center, New York. Ammannagari got her medical degree from SVS Medical College and plans to pursue her career in medical oncology.

Ammannagari has been conferred as the winner of the E Donnall Thomas Outstanding Research Presentation Award for the year 2013. Her research project was among the 12 projects presented as part of E Donnall Thomas Research Day. Her research was also presented at the New York chapter of the American College of Physicians meet early this year. She won the first place for the best resident research category.

Her project was titled “Impact of obesity on the efficacy of colon cancer treatment”. She said she would pursue her research on the subject. Speaking about her research she said, “Diet induced obesity is a major health problem worldwide. I chose to conduct a study to see if there was a relationship between obesity and the response to chemotherapy in colon cancer. Interestingly it was found that obesity does affect the treatment response. It seems to block the intended action of chemotherapy. I am planning to study the cell signalling pathways that get activated in the wake of obesity, with a focus on new therapeutic agents in cancer patients with obesity and metabolic syndrome.”

Ammannagari worked on the study project with Erin Gillaspie, Michael Greene, Christine Burnington, Melissa Horsman and Anush Patel from the Bassett Medical Centre’s research lab.