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High Impact Publications Award

Hollings leadership annually recognizes members who've published exceptional work furthering the body of knowledge about cancer.

MUSC Hollings Cancer Center enthusiastically supports its members’ impactful discoveries and publications and has developed the High Impact Publications Award to recognize excellence on a yearly basis.

A review committee of respected members with wide-ranging experience selects awardees from nominations of publications that have appeared in high impact journals with a Hollings member as the first or a primary author.

2025 Awardees

Meet Ashish Deshmukh, Ph.D. Publication: Annals of Internal Medicine
Ashish Deshmukh Spotlight
Ashish Deshmukh Spotlight
Screening for Anal Cancer Among Men Who Have Sex with Men With HIV: Benefits, Harms, and Cost-Effectiveness Analyses ”
Read the paper open_in_new
Meet Shikhar Mehrotra, Ph.D. Publication: Science Advances
Shikhar Mehrotra Spotlight
Shikhar Mehrotra Spotlight
H2S-Prdx4 axis mitigates Golgi stress to bolster tumor-reactive T cell immunotherapeutic response ”
Read the paper open_in_new
Meet Besim Ogretmen, Ph.D. Publication: Cell Reports
Besim Ogretmen Spotlight
Besim Ogretmen Spotlight
Alterations of ceramide synthesis induce PD-L1 internalization and signaling to regulate tumor metastasis and immunotherapy response ”
Read the paper open_in_new

Eligibility and Criteria

For any questions concerning eligibility or submitting a nomination, please contact Renee Steffen (steffenr@musc.edu).

  • Must be a full Hollings member.
  • Must be first or a primary author of the publication.
  • Work must have been completed at MUSC.
  • Must be cancer related, but preference will be given to translational science.
  • Nominations can be submitted by colleagues or self-nominations. Self-nominations are limited to one publication.
  • The publication must have appeared in a high impact journal or e-published within the past previous academic year (July 1 through June 30). Manuscripts will be accepted if they produce an official letter of acceptance.
  • Up to three publications will be honored per year for the previous academic year. One awardee will be chosen from each Hollings research program.
  • Awardees will receive the following:
    • $1,000 from their specific research program.
    • A framed plaque to be awarded at an Executive Committee meeting and displayed at the awardees' discretion.
    • A personalized nameplate on the plaque displayed within the Hollings Cancer Center auditorium.

Review Committee

Review committee members are nominated by Hollings research program leaders. Awardee decisions are made based on various metrics including, but not limited to, impact factor and citation count.

  • Cancer Biology & Immunology: Joe Delaney, Ph.D., and Leonardo Ferreira, Ph.D.
  • Cancer Prevention & Control: Erin McClure, Ph.D., and Kalyani Sonawane, Ph.D.
  • Developmental Cancer Therapeutics: Jen Wang, Ph.D., and John Wrangle, M.D.

2024 Awardees

Matthew Carpenter, Ph.D.
Professor, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Publication: Lancet eClinical Medicine
Article: "Effect of unguided e-cigarette provision on uptake, use, and smoking cessation among adults who smoke in the USA: a naturalistic, randomised, controlled clinical trial"

Richard O’Neil, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Pharmacology & Immunology
Publication: Molecular Therapy
Article: "Efficient T cell adoptive transfer in lymphoreplete hosts mediated by transient activation of Stat5 signaling"

Ozgur Sahin, Ph.D.
Professor, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Publication: Nature Communications
Article: "Toxic PARP trapping upon cAMP-induced DNA damage reinstates the efficacy of endocrine therapy and CDK4/6 inhibitors in treatment-refractory ER+ breast cancer"

2023 Awardees

Evan Graboyes, M.D.
Associate Professor, Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery
Publication: JAMA Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery
Article: "Efficacy of a Brief Tele–Cognitive Behavioral Treatment vs Attention Control for Head and Neck Cancer Survivors With Body Image Distress"

Lu Han, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Publication: Nature Communications
Article: "The splanchnic mesenchyme is the tissue of origin for pancreatic fibroblasts during homeostasis and tumorigenesis”

Brian Hess, M.D.
Associate Professor, Medicine
Publication: Blood
Article: "Efficacy of tixagevimab-cilgavimab in preventing SARS-CoV-2 for patients with B-cell malignancies”

2022 Awardees

David Long, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Publication: Nature Communications
Article: “BRD4 promotes resection and homology-directed repair of DNA double-strand”

Jezabel Rodriguez-Blanco, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Pediatrics
Publication: Science Advances
Article: “Noncanonical activation of GLI signaling in SOX2+ cells drives medulloblastoma relapse”

2021 Awardees

Wenjian Gan, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Publication: Nature Communications
Article: “PRMT5-Mediated Arginine Methylation Activates AKT Kinase to Govern Tumorigenesis”

Tracy Smith, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Publication: JAMA Pediatrics
Article: “Intention to Quit Vaping Among United States Adolescents”