The O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC) at UAB announced the 2023 class of NextGen Scholars including two awardees sponsored by Christopher Willey, M.D., Ph.D., UAB Department of Radiation Oncology Associate Vice Chair of Translational Research and Hale-Stephens ROAR Endowed Professor. Willey is also a senior scientist at the CCC.

The NextGen Scholars Awards support the training of future scientific leaders in cancer research. Manoj Kumar, Ph.D., and Lauren Nassour-Caswell are two of three scholars named this year.

“We are so thankful that the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Young Supporters Board selected Lauren and Manoj for the prestigious NextGen Scholars awards,” Willey said. “These funds will help support two exciting projects investigating the devastating primary brain malignancy, glioblastoma. These two named awards honor Jacob Baker and Mary Ann Harvard, who were Young Supporters Board members who succumbed to cancer. We are humbled and grateful to receive these awards.”

Manoj Kumar, Ph.D.

The winner of the 2023 Jacob Baker NextGen Scholar Award is Manoj Kumar, Ph.D., currently a postdoctoral fellow in the UAB Department of Radiation Oncology. Kumar’s proposal investigates new ways to treat temozolomide (TMZ) and radiation-resistant glioblastomas. Surgery, TMZ chemotherapy and conventional radiation therapy are currently used to treat glioblastoma, but many forms of glioblastoma have become resistant to TMZ and conventional radiation therapy, creating a need for new treatment options. Kumar’s research will investigate the role of FLASH radiation, an innovative ultra-high dose radiation therapy with the potential to improve the therapeutic index for glioblastoma and other cancers, in treating TMZ and radiation-resistant glioblastoma.

In addition to this project, Kumar is also utilizing in-vitro models of primary and recurrent patient-derived xenografts to screen a library of blood-brain barrier penetrant pharmaceuticals to identify novel treatments for primary, temozolomide and radiation-resistant glioblastoma.

Lauren Nassour-Caswell

The winner of the 2023 Mary Ann Harvard NextGen Scholar Award is Lauren Nassour-Caswell, currently a biochemistry and structural biology theme Ph.D. candidate in the UAB Graduate Biomedical Sciences program. Nassour-Caswell’s proposal investigates the role of myristoylated alanine-rich c-kinase substrate (MARCKS) in the generation and stability of tunneling nanotubes between patient-derived glioblastoma (GBM) cells and normal human astrocytes. Tunneling nanotubes have emerged as important structures directly involved in the mediation of therapeutic resistance within the tumor microenvironment, and Nassour-Caswell’s proposal focuses on targeting these structures using a peptide derived from the protein MARCKS as well as elucidating the protein’s specific role. Her research will provide new insights into overcoming therapeutic resistance in glioblastoma and greatly progress the field of cellular intercommunication.

Kumar and Nassour-Caswell join one other O’Neal NextGen Scholar this year, Nicole E. Caston, MPH, a current doctoral candidate in the UAB Department of Epidemiology whose predoctoral award was funded by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama.