A gift born of loss, aimed at hope
Satish & Sudha Gupta Award to foster innovative cancer research
Date Posted: Friday, June 27, 2025
Satish P. Gupta, MD, who has witnessed the devastating toll of cancer on several close family members, has established an endowed annual award to support UMass Chan Medical School students engaged in cancer research. The award honors the memory of his wife, Sudha Gupta, MD, who died in 2020.
Satish, a native of India, earned his medical degree from Panjab University in India, and trained in cardiology and internal medicine at what was then Memorial Hospital (now UMass Memorial Medical Center) and Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women’s Hospital) in Boston. He practiced cardiology and internal medicine in association with UMass Memorial Health - Marlborough Hospital and UMass Memorial Medical Center for about 40 years before recently retiring.
Satish hopes that the Satish & Sudha Gupta Award for Cancer Research will contribute to advancements in early detection and more effective treatments—and eventually a cure—for cancer.
Sudha, a breast cancer survivor who worked as an internist at Worcester State Hospital—then affiliated with the Medical School and later integrated into the UMass Memorial Health system—for two decades, was described by the hospital’s medical director, the late Constantin Gherondache, MD, as “a highly dedicated and talented physician.” She earned her medical degree from SMS Medical College in Jaipur, India, and a doctorate in pharmacology from All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, widely regarded as the nation's premier medical institution. The couple immigrated to the United States from India in 1972.

Satish’s deep commitment to cancer research was shaped decades ago by the tragic loss of his elder brother, who died of rectal cancer at the age of just 24. A brilliant engineer, his brother graduated at the top of his class from the Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute in Mumbai, one of India’s most prestigious engineering and technology institutions. Tragically, during surgery in England, doctors discovered that the cancer had already spread extensively throughout his abdomen, leaving no viable treatment options at the time. Years later, Satish further mourned the passing of a nephew from multiple myeloma and a niece from bone cancer—losses that deepened his resolve to support progress in cancer research.
The award is designated for a fourth-year MD/PhD student at UMass Chan who is actively engaged in cancer research and, according to peers and faculty, demonstrates the qualities of an excellent clinician and shows promise as a future physician-investigator.
The inaugural award was presented to Kevin O’Connor, of Westwood, Massachusetts, during the T.H. Chan School of Medicine Awards Ceremony on May 30.
Kevin completed his PhD thesis in the lab of Michelle Kelliher, PhD, the Our Danny Cancer Fund Chair in Biomedical Research I and professor of molecular, cell & cancer biology. His research focused on T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL), a type of childhood leukemia, and the mechanisms behind treatment resistance and relapse.
His work helped identify a key challenge in treating T-ALL: the expression of two oncogenes (cancer-causing genes), TAL1 and LMO2, drives the leukemia cells into a dormant or “quiescent” state, allowing them to evade standard therapies. These insights may lead to new approaches that more effectively target resistant cells and improve outcomes for children with this disease.
"Receiving the Satish & Sudha Gupta Award for Cancer Research is a tremendous honor, and it comes at a pivotal moment as I transition to the next phase of my career. This support will help me stay connected to my ongoing research and move closer to my goal of becoming a physician-scientist in pediatric oncology."
—Kevin O'Connor
This summer, Kevin will begin the Harriet Lane Pediatric Residency Program at Johns Hopkins University as part of the Accelerated Research Pathway. The program includes two years of pediatrics residency followed by four years of pediatric hematology-oncology fellowship. He plans to continue his research in collaboration with the Kelliher lab at UMass Chan, aiming to identify therapeutic targets that disrupt leukemic cell dormancy.
“As I begin the next phase of my training at Johns Hopkins, I’m committed to continuing both basic and translational research, with a focus on finding more effective and enduring treatments for children affected by cancer,” Kevin said.
“Receiving the Satish & Sudha Gupta Award for Cancer Research is a tremendous honor, and it comes at a pivotal moment as I transition to the next phase of my career,” he said. “This support will help me stay connected to my ongoing research and move closer to my goal of becoming a physician-scientist in pediatric oncology.”
Kevin expressed deep gratitude for being the first recipient of the award.
“I’m especially honored to receive this award in memory of Dr. Sudha Gupta, whose life clearly reflected a deep commitment to medicine, family and the Worcester community. I’m deeply grateful to the Gupta family for this recognition and their investment in the cancer research community,” he said.
For Satish, the award is a way to channel personal loss into lasting impact.
“Cancer has had an enormous impact on my life,” said Satish, a longtime resident of Westborough, Massachusetts. “Losing my brother, nephew and niece, and, in a different way, seeing Sudha’s battle and survival changed my perspective. This endowment is my way of helping researchers push forward, find new solutions, and ultimately, save more lives. It is a privilege and honor to support this noble cause.”