![](http://www.hawaii.edu/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/un-cancer-center-bononi-a.jpg)
Angela Bononi, a University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center thoracic oncology postdoctoral fellow, was one of five recipients of the prestigious 2017 Italian Scientists and Scholars of North America Foundation (ISSNAF) Awards presented at the Italian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
“There are no words, neither in English nor in Italian, to express how much winning this ISSNAF award means to me,” she said.
![](http://www.hawaii.edu/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/un-cancer-center-bononi-campese.jpg)
Bononi received the Hoan Lovells Award in Medicine, Biosciences and Cognitive Science for “Germline BAP1 mutations impair IP3R3-mediated Ca2+ flux to mitochondria and induce a Warburg effect.”
ISSNAF awards young Italian researchers each year in five subjects. The winner in each category receives a $3,000 prize.
The 16 finalists, all Italian researchers younger than 40, were chosen through a rigorous selection process and presented their research projects to a panel of judges. The research projects are in the fields of leukemia; environmental sciences, astrophysics and chemistry; medicine, bioscience and cognitive science; engineering; mathematics and physics.
ISSNAF‘s mission is to promote scientific, academic and technological cooperation among Italian researchers and scholars active in North America and the world of research and industry in Italy.
—By Nana Ohkawa