Media contact: Yvonne Taunton
The O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center continues to be a resource for cancer research funding.The University of Alabama at Birmingham’s O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center recently awarded eight grants through O’Neal Invests, which funds UAB investigators initiating new cancer-related projects to do key preliminary work needed to enable competitive R01 applications.
Three of the eight projects were made possible by funding from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama. Two projects were made possible by the Richard A. Elkus, M.D., Eminent Scholars Program in GI Oncology Research.
“We are grateful to be able to support our scientists as they explore novel ideas — ideas that will impact the future of cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment,” said Barry Sleckman, M.D., Ph.D., director of the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The grants are for $160,000 over two years. The O’Neal Invests program holds two application periods per year, with one in the spring and one in the fall. Cancer Center membership is not a requirement to apply, but awardees must be from within UAB and become members of the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center. The grants are peer-reviewed by a panel of UAB faculty.
Investigators and projects that received funding for the fall 2021 cycle include:
James Bibb, Ph.D., and Etty N. Benveniste, Ph.D., “Cellular and Molecular Basis of the Neurological Effects of Chemotherapy”*
Randall Davis, M.D., “Immunotherapeutic Targeting of FCRL Molecules in B cell Malignancy”
Alexa Mattheyses, Ph.D., “The role of EGFR-integrin crosstalk in lung cancer mechanobiology”
Lewis Zhichang Shi, M.D., Ph.D., “Uncovering and targeting molecular mechanism(s) of tumor-intrinsic immunotherapeutic resistance in melanoma”
Keshav K. Singh, Ph.D., “Intercellular Mitochondrial Trafficking as a Novel Mechanism in Breast Cancer Progression and Metastasis”*
Grant Williams, M.D., and Gabrielle Rocque, M.D., “Integrating Systematic Patient-Reported Evaluations in Multi-Disciplinary Tumor Boards”+
Eddy Yang, M.D., Ph.D., and Zhuo Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., “RNF2 ablation stimulates durable NK-CD4+ T cell-dependent anti-tumor immunity”*
Karina Yoon, Ph.D., “Mechanism-based therapy for pancreatic cancer”+
* This project received funding from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama.
+ This project received funding from the Richard A. Elkus, M.D., Eminent Scholars Program in GI Oncology Research.