The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded a $25 million Clinical and Translational Science Award to Rebecca Jackson, MD, a member of the Cancer Control Program at the OSUCCC – James and director of Ohio State’s Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS). The grant will further the CCTS mission of translating discoveries into therapies to improve human health. This is the CCTS’ third five-year cycle of funding since 2008 from the NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. The CCTS is a collaboration of Ohio State’s College of Medicine, other colleges at Ohio State, and Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) awarded a $12.7 million, five-year Program Progress Grant to OSUCCC deputy director Peter Shields, MD, and Dorothy Hatsumaki, PhD, of the University of Minnesota, to help researchers conduct comprehensive, systematic and integrated projects on the relative toxicity, addictiveness and appeal of unventilated vs. ventilated filter cigarettes. Shields also is principal investigator for a two-year, $1.36 million NCI grant to study the potential lung toxicity for inhaling electronic cigarette (e-cigs) aerosols relative to smoking.
A major public health initiative to prevent cervical cancer in at-risk Appalachian families in four states is underway with support from an $11 million Program Progress Grant from the NCI to the OSUCCC – James. The institution is collaborating with 10 health systems throughout Appalachian Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia to conduct this study in connection with the University of Kentucky, University of Virginia and West Virginia University. Led by Electra Paskett, PhD, MSPH, associate director for population sciences and co-leader of the Cancer Control Program at the OSUCCC – James, the initiative will focus on reducing cervical cancer incidence in at-risk communities by targeting the major causes of this disease: tobacco smoking, human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and lack of cervical cancer screening.
The NCI awarded a $10.2 million Cancer Moonshot grant to researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH) in support of multiple ongoing projects led by the Pediatric Ohio-New York Cancer (Peds-ONC) Immunotherapy Center, which includes collaborators at The Ohio State University, the New York College of Medicine and the University of Minnesota. The multi-year grant will fund an immunotherapy project led by Timothy Cripe, MD, PhD, and Elaine Mardis, PhD, along with a viral oncology project led by Kevin Cassady, MD, and a natural killer (NK) cell efficacy project led by Dean Lee, MD, PhD. Cripe, Mardis and Cassady are in the Translational Therapeutics Program at the OSUCCC – James, and Lee is in the Leukemia Research Program.
OSUCCC – James researchers led by Purnima Kumar, DDS, PhD, landed a five-year, $3.12 million grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research to conduct the first comprehensive examination of the body’s biological responses to electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), also known as e-cigs. The researchers will use the oral cavity as a model system for their study, since it is the first area of the body affected by ENDS and the most accessible for examination. Kumar is a professor in the College of Dentistry and member of the Molecular Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program at the OSUCCC – James.
A $2.2 million, five-year grant from the NCI will help researchers led by Bhuvaneswari Ramaswamy, MD, address cancer disparity by defining the molecular link between breastfeeding and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Ramaswamy, associate professor in the Division of Medical Oncology at Ohio State and member of the Translational Therapeutics Program at the OSUCCC – James, and colleagues state in their project abstract that African-American women with breast cancer face higher mortality rates due to a greater incidence of aggressive TNBC. The scientists say population studies have linked reduced rates of breastfeeding among black women to this higher TNBC, but the mechanism for this circumstance is unknown.
The NCI awarded a five-year grant of nearly $2.83 million to help a research team at the OSUCCC – James conduct a clinical trial that will assess a potential new treatment for patients with glioblastoma, a lethal primary brain tumor with limited treatment options. The team is led by co-principal investigators Vinay Puduvalli, MBBS, professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery at Ohio State and member of the Translational Therapeutics Program at the OSUCCC – James, and Deepa Sampath, PhD, assistant professor in the Division of Hematology at Ohio State and member of the Leukemia Research Program at the OSUCCC – James.
The NCI awarded Matthew Ringel, MD, professor and director of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at Ohio State, a $1.89 million R01 grant to study the role of p21-activated kinases in thyroid cancer development and progression. This work by Ringel and colleagues will define the function of these proteins in thyroid cancer and determine whether the PAK pathway is a viable therapeutic target for certain patients with this disease. The project is part of an $11.3 million Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant awarded by the NCI in 2013 for a six-year thyroid cancer project involving researchers at the OSUCCC – James and MD Anderson Cancer Center. Ringel, who also co-leads the Cancer Biology Program at the OSUCCC – James, is national PI for the SPORE grant.
Carolyn Presley, MD, MPH, and Colleen Spees, PhD, MEd, RDN, received a three-year, $2.3 million research grant funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation to conduct a randomized clinical trial evaluating the impact of nutritional counseling and medically tailored meals for patients with lung cancer. The study will take place at the OSUCCC – James, Tufts Medical Center, Fox Chase Cancer Center and MD Anderson Cancer Center. Spees, an associate professor in the Division of Medical Dietetics & Health Sciences at Ohio State, is the study principal investigator. Presley, an assistant professor in the Division of Medical Oncology at Ohio State, is site PI. Both are also members of the OSUCCC – James.
The American Cancer Society (ACS) awarded a $1.7 million, five-year grant to Jennifer Kue, PhD, assistant professor in The Ohio State University College of Nursing, to fund the “Intergenerational Refugee and Immigrant Cancer Screening Project,” for which Kue is principal investigator (PI). Kue also is in the Cancer Control Program at the OSUCCC – James. The study aims to increase awareness of and screening for breast and cervical cancer among intergenerational Southeast Asian immigrant women. A co-PI for the project is Maryam Lustberg, MD, MPH, associate professor in the Division of Medical Oncology at Ohio State and member of the Cancer Control Program at the OSUCCC – James.
A five-year, $5.7 million, multi-institutional\ grant from the NCI will help investigators at the OSUCCC – James and the University of Kentucky collaborate to increase screening and follow-up care for colorectal cancer in central Appalachia, a medically underserved region. The grant, part of the NCI Cancer Moonshot initiative to boost cancer research nationwide, will support a multi-site project called Accelerating Colorectal Cancer Screening Through Implementation Science (ACCSIS) in Appalachia. Principal investigators are Mark Dignan, PhD, MPH, a professor at the University of Kentucky, and Electra Paskett, PhD, MSPH, associate director for population sciences and co-leader of the Cancer Control Program at the OSUCCC – James.
The NCI awarded a five-year, $1.78 million grant to Zobeida Cruz-Monserrate, PhD, assistant professor in the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at Ohio State, to help her and colleagues study the role of the lipocalin 2 (LCN2) protein in pancreatic cancer. Cruz-Monserrate, a member of the Molecular Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program at the OSUCCC – James, says their project will provide insights into blocking LCN2 and its associated pathways to help better treat or prevent pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
Ann Scheck McAlearney, ScD, MS, professor and vice chair for research in the Department of Family Medicine, received a $1.89 million grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality for a study titled “Searching for Management Approaches to Reduce Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI) Transmission (SMART).” McAlearney, who is in the Cancer Control Program at the OSUCCC – James, and colleagues will develop a management practice SMART toolkit for use by hospitals and health systems nationwide.
Susheela Tridandapani, PhD, professor in the Division of Hematology, and Jon Butchar, PhD, assistant professor in the Division of Hematology, lead a team that received a $1.75 million grant from the NCI for a study titled “Myeloid Cell-Derived Granzyme B as an Inducible Enhancer of Cancer Immunotherapy.” Tridandapani and Butchar are in the Leukemia Research Program at the OSUCCC – James.
The U.S. Department of Defense awarded a three-year, $1.17 million grant to help OSUCCC – James researchers develop a cell-surface molecule called RAGE (receptor for advanced glycation end products) as a biomarker and therapeutic target for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Principal investigator is Ramesh Ganju, PhD, professor in the Department of Pathology at Ohio State and member of the Cancer Biology Program at the OSUCCC – James. Ganju and co-investigators Bhuvaneswari Ramaswamy, MD, of the Translational Therapeutics Program at the OSUCCC – James, and Dinesh Ahirwar, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Pathology, have shown that RAGE is expressed in a panel of aggressive breast cancer cell lines, TNBC and metastatic patient samples.
The OSUCCC – James will address a priority of both the NCI and Ohio State by using a five-year, $1.03 million NCI grant to establish a postdoctoral training program for cancer prevention and control. The T-32 grant, awarded to principal investigator (PI) and project leader Peter Shields, MD, deputy director of the OSUCCC, and co-PI Christopher Weghorst, PhD, professor in the College of Public Health, will support transdisciplinary training that will prepare postdoctoral fellows to be independent researchers.
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke awarded a $2 million, five-year grant to help Ohio State researchers study glioblastoma (GBM), an incurable brain cancer. Primary investigators are Deliang Guo, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology, and Radiation Oncology Department professor and chair Arnab Chakravarti, MD. Researchers hope to reveal the role lipid droplets play in GBM, its method of molecular regulation and its therapeutic potential.