The O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center recently awarded eight projects for a total of $1.2 million in research grants through its new program, O’Neal Invests. Three of those grants went to UAB Pathology faculty: C. Ryan Miller, M.D., Ph.D., Division Director, Neuropathology; Casey Weaver, M.D., Professor, Anatomic Pathology; and Lalita Shevde-Samant, Ph.D., Professor, Molecular & Cellular Pathology.
The O’Neal Invests program funds UAB investigators initiating new cancer-related projects to do key, preliminary work in order to enable competitive R01 applications.
C. Ryan Miller, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Miller's proposal is a pre-R01 titled, "“To Examine the Epigenetic Mechanisms of Dynamic Kinome Rewiring in Response to EGFR-targeted Kinase Inhibitor Therapies in Preclinical Models of Glioblastoma.” From Dr. Miller:
Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common primary brain tumor in humans. Over half of these tumors are driven by signaling through a receptor kinase called EGFR. However, drugs targeting the activity of this kinase have failed in clinical trials due to acquired drug resistance. Here we will investigate whether GBM tumor cells rewire their signaling circuitry in response to EGFR drugs through a mechanism that reorganizes the genomic regulatory structures controlling key signaling genes, collectively called the “kinome.” Our goal is to use this information to design more effective drug combination regimens that target not only EGFR, but also the genomic restructuring of these regulatory elements.
Lalita Shevde-Samant, Ph.D.
Dr. Shevde-Samant's pre-R01 award is titled, "“Hedgehog Activity Regulates Nucleolar Response to Ribosomal DNA Damage in Breast Cancer.”
Casey Weaver, M.D.
Dr. Weaver's pre-R01 award is titled, “Deciphering the Role of IL-22 in the Pathogenesis of Colitis-associated Colorectal Cancer.” Weaver credits Dr. Awal Chadha, Hematology/Oncology Fellow, Internal Medicine, working in Dr. Weaver's lab, with spearheading the grant.
Each O'Neal Invests grant provides $160,000 in funding over two years with each project can including one or more principal investigators. The O’Neal Cancer Center requests applications for this program twice per year, once in the spring and once in the fall. The grant applications are then peer-reviewed by a panel of UAB faculty. Cancer Center membership is not a requirement to apply, but awardees must become members.
The second grant cycle was last fall, with the review panel meeting on Jan. 19. Each of the 40 grant applications that were submitted was reviewed by three panel members who scored it and provided written comments. Thirteen applications were discussed during the meeting, and eight achieved a fundable score.
O’Neal Cancer Center Director Barry Sleckman, M.D., Ph.D., says this year’s awardees were the best of a very impressive group of applicants. The next RFA will be posted in the spring, and applicants who were not successful this time may make revisions based on the critiques and reapply.
Read the full list of grant awardees here.