The O’Neal Invests program funds UAB investigators starting new cancer-related projects to initiate key, preliminary work needed to enable competitive R01 applications from the NIH.by Adam Pope

The Breast Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama is awarding funds for three new projects through the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s O’Neal Invests research program. 

The O’Neal Invests program funds UAB investigators starting new cancer-related projects to initiate key, preliminary work needed to enable competitive R01 applications from the National Institutes of Health.

“We are pleased to fund these projects to help advance breast cancer research, improve treatment options and ultimately save lives,” said Elizabeth Bradner Davis, executive director of the BCRFA.

The BCRFA’s newly funded projects this fall include:

• Characterization of hypoxia-specific adaption of ribosomes by Rajeev Samant, Ph.D., UAB Department of Pathology
• CRISPR-perturbation single-cell platform to dissect the tumor-immune interaction and metastasis by Lizhong Wang, M.D., Ph.D., UAB Department of Genetics
• Structural basis for Fas-mediated apoptosis and mechanisms of inhibition in breast cancer by Jamil Saad, Ph.D., Department of Microbiology; and Yabing Chen, Ph.D., UAB Department of Pathology

In addition, the BCRFA provided the second year of support for two projects from 2020 that recently received approval for continued support following their nine-month update. These projects include:

• RANK Signaling Pathways in Breast Cancer Development by Xu Feng, Ph.D., UAB Department of Pathology
• Combinatorial genetic immunotherapy and RANKL antagonism for breast cancer by Selvarangan Ponnazhagan, Ph.D., UAB Department of Pathology

“We are grateful to the BCRFA for their continued support of our cutting-edge breast cancer research efforts,” said Barry P. Sleckman, M.D., Ph.D., director of the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB. “The BCRFA has been an integral partner in helping us address our mission to fund new discoveries and novel therapies related to breast cancer.”

During the last 25 years, the BCRFA has invested more than $11 million in breast cancer research in the state of Alabama. Its awards to the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center have resulted in over $43 million in additional federal/national funds for the center, as well as 267 publications and five patents.