Two physician-researchers in the Milton and Carroll Petrie Department of Urology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have been recognized for making unique contributions to urology research, further underscoring Mount Sinai’s growing leadership in helping bring innovations from the laboratory to patients in need.
Natasha Kyprianou, MBBS, PhD
Natasha Kyprianou, MBBS, PhD, Vice Chair of Research and a leading expert on prostate, bladder, and kidney cancer, received the American Urological Association’s Richard D. Williams, MD, Prostate Cancer Research Excellence Award. The Williams Award is presented annually to recognize outstanding research in the field of prostate cancer over the past 10 years.
The award is bestowed by the Urology Care Foundation, the world’s leading nonprofit urological health foundation and the official foundation of the American Urological Association (AUA). Dr. Kyprianou is the first woman to receive this award, which was presented to her at the annual AUA meeting in New Orleans in May 2022.
The Richard D. Williams, MD, Prostate Cancer Research Excellence Award, established in 2013, is named in honor of the late urologist, scientist, mentor, and humanitarian and is made possible through a fund established by his widow, Beverly Williams.
“It is incredibly humbling to receive this award honoring the legacy of one of my heroes in urology, Dr. Richard Williams,” said Dr. Kyprianou, who is Professor of Urology, Oncological Sciences, and Pathology, Molecular, and Cell-Based Medicine at Icahn Mount Sinai.
Natasha Kyprianou, MBBS, PhD, Vice Chair of Research and a leading expert on prostate, bladder, and kidney cancer
“Knowing that my work on understanding mechanisms of therapeutic cross-resistance between taxane-based chemotherapy and antiandrogens is impacting the clinical management of patients with advanced prostate cancer is a distinct privilege,” she added. “Dr. Williams has been an inspirational figure in our discovery journey of therapeutic strategies to overcome lethal prostate cancer. This amazing honor is a remarkable reminder that we must keep on fighting to save lives of men suffering with prostate cancer.”
Dr. Kyprianou is a translational researcher in urologic oncology with expertise in the pathobiology of prostate, bladder, and kidney cancer, and with a specific focus on dissecting mechanisms of therapeutic resistance in advanced lethal disease. Pioneering studies by Dr. Kyprianou’s team first established the novel effect of microtubule-targeting chemotherapy on the localization of the androgen receptor (AR) and activity in prostate cancer, enabling a novel insight into therapeutic cross-resistance. This paradigm shift evidence initiated a new direction of investigations in therapeutic targeting of AR by taxane-based chemotherapies.
On August 5, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved darolutamide (second generation antiandrogen) in combination with docetaxel for patients with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC). Dr. Kyprianou and her team provided the first pre-clinical evidence on this combination approach (antiandrogen and docetaxel) given early on in patients with hormone-sensitive, treatment-naive metastatic prostate cancer.
“Dr. Kyprianou is an excellent scientist and a brilliant prostate cancer researcher who has focused her career on a prostate cancer cure,” said Ash Tewari, MBBS, MCh, FRCS (Hon.), Professor and System Chair, Milton and Carroll Petrie Department of Urology, who is also Director of the Center of Excellence for Prostate Cancer at The Tisch Cancer Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Surgeon-in-Chief of the Tisch Cancer Hospital at The Mount Sinai Hospital. “We are very fortunate to work with her and are grateful for her drive to help men with lethal prostate cancer.”
Steven Kaplan, MD, FACS
Steven Kaplan, MD, FACS, who was appointed as the Chair of Research at the AUA in 2021, is now heading a new initiative that has created the first research incubator in the field of urology to speed the development of new innovations that can help patients.
The new program, called the AUA Innovation Nexus, will hold its inaugural event on April 27, 2023, before the AUA Annual Meeting in Chicago.
“Our current health care system creates barriers for research and innovation, and there is a lack of practical knowledge on how to advance innovative ideas to real-world solutions. Innovation Nexus is changing that,” says Dr. Kaplan, Professor of Urology and Director of the Men's Wellness Program, Mount Sinai Health System. “We will bring together the who's who in medical discovery and advancement from groundbreaking inventors and established industry players to early startups to discuss the next generation of discovery and, most important, make connections to move you to the next level in your discovery journey. Through these advancements, we will transform the lives of millions of urologic patients and be a part of the next generation of innovation in urology.”
Dr. Kaplan says he took on this role at the AUA because research funding in urology, such as funding from the National Institutes of Health, has been lagging that in other surgical subspecialties.
The event will allow startups, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, investors, and urologists the opportunity to come together “to ignite urologic discovery like never before,” according to the AUA.
Steven Kaplan, MD, FACS, Chair of Research at the American Urological Association, discusses a new initiative that has created the first research incubator in the field of urology to speed the development of new innovations that can help patients.