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Allison Vanecek wins Neogen Land grant prize ($30,000)

Photo of Allison Vanecek
Allison Vanecek

Allison Vanecek was one of two Michigan State University College of Natural Science (NatSci) graduate students who recently won the inaugural awards from the Neogen Land Grant Prize in a competitive selection process. Each student was awarded $30,000 to advance their research projects: one focusing on drug discovery and the other on the economics of climate change.

This award — administered through MSU’s Office of Research and Innovation—is funded by a gift from former Provost and Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies, Dr. John E. Cantlon, and his wife, Irene Cantlon. With this gift, the Cantlons sought to highlight Neogen and MSU’s mutual goals of scientific research excellence.

Vanecek, a chemistry Ph.D. candidate, conducts research that focuses on the exploration of a novel therapeutic strategy for Lou Gehrig’s disease, also called Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or ALS. There is no cure for ALS, nor effective treatments to slow or halt the progression of the disease. Vanecek’s research and proposal exposes a new treatment that could help those affected by ALS.

Vanecek’s team is hoping to design and synthesize novel “20S proteasome activators” to better understand implications of the progression of ALS. 20S proteasome activation works through a completely unique mechanism over any other current drugs on the market, offering a novel approach for treating disease.

Small molecule activation of the 20S proteasome shows promise as a potential therapeutic strategy for treating ALS. The team is hoping to further explore the mechanism of this treatment strategy and provide evidence to establish the treatment as a means of halting disease progression.

“I am so grateful to be awarded the Neogen Land Grant Prize. This award will have a huge impact on my research and will provide the opportunity to explore many more possibilities to further investigate this new therapeutic strategy,” Vanecek said. “Ultimately, my greatest hope is that it will also have an even larger impact on society, leading to the development of a new treatment to help those affected by ALS.”

Jetze J. Tepe, a professor of chemistry in NatSci’s Department of Chemistry and Vanecek’s mentor, said the award is a well-deserved recognition of Vanecek’s accomplishments and discoveries, allowing her to further explore her new compounds as a possible treatment for ALS.

“Allison’s work investigates a completely new treatment strategy that may one day provide the basis for a therapeutic treatment for ALS,” Tepe said. “Her discoveries have been patented by MSU and are currently being explored by a biotech company for their clinical potential.”