New McLeod Prostate Cancer Translational Research Fellowship Presented to Prachi Mishra

Army Col. (ret.) David G. McLeod, MD, JD

David G. McLeod, MD, JD

Prachi Mishra, PhD, was awarded the first “Colonel (Ret.) David G. McLeod Prostate Cancer Translational Research Fellowship” at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (USU) on December 7. She was presented this award in front of Department of Defense leadership, industry leaders, cancer scientists, military healthcare providers, and other colleagues.

The fellowship was named after retired Army Col. David G. McLeod, MD, JD, for his 50-year devotion to prostate cancer research and treatment as a military urologist, retiring in 2016 as founding director of the Center for Prostate Disease Research. He was also recognized during the ceremony with an award.

The fellowship is given in support of an outstanding biomedical researcher to further enhance the progression of an ongoing cooperative research and development agreement between USU’s Center for Prostate Disease Research, the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc., and Boston-based biopharma company BERG’s multi-omics and artificial intelligence platforms.

Mishra is currently a postdoctoral visiting fellow in the breast and prostate cancer unit of the Laboratory of Human Carcinogenesis at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health.

Her current work includes the development of precise markers obtained from blood and other biofluids to encourage ongoing predictive approaches in the management of patients throughout the continuum of the disease. Such markers could help physicians determine which patients with indolent disease should be directed to active surveillance and which patients with disease progression should be directed to appropriate treatment groups, particularly in the case of patients with prostate cancer. She will continue this research as a part of the fellowship.

In addition to her recent research fellowship, Mishra is the recipient of several awards including the Center for Fellows and Young Investigator Award for Centers for Cancer Research, the National Cancer Institute Director’s Innovation Award, the Travel award for participation in “World Conference of Interventional Oncology,” the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering, and the National Eligibility Test.

Mishra received her master of science in life sciences at Devi Ahilya University in Indore, India and later went on to complete her PhD in life sciences (cancer biology) at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India.