PROVIDENCE, RI [Brown University]: The Cancer Center at Brown University has announced the funding of eight pilot projects. These eight projects were selected from 24 proposals by a panel of expert faculty in an NIH study section-style review.
Funds for the pilot project were provided by generous donors. The Division of Hematology/Oncology at Lifespan health system/Brown provided additional support.
The funded projects and their investigators are:
- Project Title: Dietary citrus consumption increases solar UV-induced DNA damage of the skin
Awardee: Eunyong Cho, ScD, Population Science Program, Cancer Center at Brown University, Department of Dermatology, Department of Epidemiology
- Project Title: Clinical Relevance of Polyploidal Giant Cancer Cells and Biomarker Identification
Awardee: Michelle Dawson, PhD, Cancer Biology Program, Cancer Center at Brown University, Warren Alpert Medical School
- Project Title: Blocking Anti-Chitinase 3-Like-1 to overcome resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors in Advanced Non-small cell lung cancer
Awardee: Hina Khan, MD, Cancer Therapeutics Program, Cancer Center at Brown University, Hematology-Oncology Division, Rhode Island Hospital, Brown University
- Project Title: Mechanisms of sexual dimorphism in aging hematopoiesis and age-related leukemia
Awardee Title: Olin Liang, PhD, Cancer Biology Program, Cancer Center at Brown University, Hematology-Oncology Division, Rhode Island Hospital, Warren Alpert Medical School
- Project Title: Preclinical evaluation of the synergistic potential of a novel class of antineoplastic drugs, imipridones, in combination with MEK inhibition to repress autophagy as a treatment strategy for KRAS-mutated malignancies
Awardee: Alexander Raufi, MD, Cancer Therapeutics Program, Cancer Center at Brown University, Hematology-Oncology Division, Rhode Island Hospital, Warren Alpert Medical School
- Project Title: Dual inhibition of MDM2 and MDM4 (MDMX) as novel therapeutic strategy to overcome resistance in cancer immunotherapy
Awardee: Ilyas Sahin, MD, Cancer Therapeutics Program, Cancer Center at Brown University, Hematology-Oncology Division, Rhode Island Hospital, Warren Alpert Medical School
- Project Title: Identification of the FTO inhibitor Entacapone as therapeutic agent for human glioblastoma
Awardee: Nikos Tapinos, MD, PhD, Cancer Biology Program, Cancer Center at Brown University, Department of Neurosurgery, Brown University and Lifespan Health System
- Project Title: Functional contribution of DDX4 in cancer cell plasticity regulation
Awardee: Mamiko Yajima, PhD, Cancer Therapeutics Program, Cancer Center at Brown University, Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry, Brown University