The IMIG Board of Directors is pleased to announce that 3 Young Investigator Awards will be given at the upcoming IMIG meeting in Kyoto.
The funding for these three awards has been donated in honor of 3 important advocacy organizations that work to ban asbestos:

BANJAN (Ban Asbestos Network Japan) Young Investigator Award ($2000)
ADAO (Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization) Young Investigator Award ($1500)
IBAS (International Ban Asbestos Secretariat) Young Investigator Award ($1500)

Awardees will be selected by the IMIG Board from submitted abstracts for the Kyoto meeting.

Submit your abstracts here by June 1st.

The Nf2 gene is mutated in 40% of mesotheliomas and and disruption of the Nf2/Merlin signaling is key to Anton Berns’ murine mesothelioma model. The authors here propose that Merlin suppresses tumorigenesis by translocating to the nucleus and by inhibiting CRL4(DCAF1), an E3 ubiquitin ligase. This breakthrough finding opens up a new candidate drug target for the treatment of NF2 tumors – especially because many patients have gene mutations that affect this cell signaling pathway at various levels.