American Cancer Society awards 143 research grants to investigators at 83 institutions nationwide

Grants total more than $51 million in the second of two cycles for 2009

The American Cancer Society, the largest non-government, not-for-profit funding source of cancer research in the United States, has awarded 143 national research and training grants totaling more than $51 million in the second of two grant cycles for 2009. The grants go into effect beginning July 1, 2009.

Since its founding in 1946, the American Cancer Society's extramural research grants program has devoted about $3.4 billion to cancer research and has funded 42 researchers who have gone on to win the Nobel Prize, primarily early in their careers. The program emphasizes investigator-initiated, peer-reviewed proposals, and has supported groundbreaking research that has led to critical discoveries leading to a better understanding of cancer and cancer treatment. Below are highlights of some of the most exiting new grants:

American Cancer Society Research Professors

• Charis Eng, M.D., Ph.D., Cleveland Clinic Foundation, has been one of the most influential and productive researchers working to define genetic markers that can predict cancer risk. She has studied the relative risk for colon cancer in individuals having a combination of a genetic mutation and a defined set of clinical features, such as the number and type of colon polyps. Her work holds the promise of increasing the ability to accurately diagnose heritable neoplastic disorders, predictively test family members, and assess and manage cancer risk.
• Arul M. Chinnaiyan, M.D., Ph.D., University of Michigan, made the startling discovery that most prostate cancers are associated with an alteration in chromosomes that allows testosterone to inappropriately turn on a transcription factor critical to the growth of prostate cancer cells. This landmark finding is being translated into important new diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic options to overcome many of the current challenges associated with prostate cancer.

Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry of Cancer

• Roger A. Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has discovered a novel protein (MERIT40) that is involved in BRCA1 dependent DNA repair. He will examine the roles of this newly discovered protein to provide new ways to improve the diagnosis and treatment of breast and ovarian cancers.
• Weihua Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., University of Houston, is looking at activities of a receptor for Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF), which helps control cellular growth. These activities may provide new therapeutic approaches to inhibiting the uncontrolled cell growth of some cancers.
• Hans-Guido Wendel, M.D., Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, will test whether proteins that translate the mRNAs expressed from oncogenic genes respond to small molecules as potential cancer treatments.