The UAB O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center has just announced its latest O'Neal Invests grant awardees, of which two faculty from the Department of Pathology are included. O'Neal Invests funds UAB investigators initiating new cancer-related projects to do key preliminary work to enable competitive extramural applications. 

Han-Fei Ding, Ph.D., Gene P. Siegal Endowed Professor, Molecular and Cellular Pathology, is a pre-R01 recipient for his project, titled, "Mapping the Metabolic Landscape of Non-MYCN High-Risk Neuroblastoma."

Adam Wende, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Division of Molecular Pathology, is a pre-R01 recipient for his project in collaboration with Steven Duncan, M.D., in the Department of Medicine. The title of Wende's project is "Lung Cancer, Copper, and T-cell Dysfunction."

The O'Neal Invests program seeks to promote excellence in areas of basic, population and translational science research relevant to cancer. The program supports nascent, paradigm-shifting cancer research proposed by UAB faculty. These are novel ideas with considerable promise and potential impact in the field of cancer care; they are likely to lead extramural funding, as determined by a peer-reviewed panel of experts. Pre-R01 grants are for $160,000 distributed over two years.