Lung Cancer Initiative Career Development Research Grant

Lung Cancer Initiative Career Development Research Grant is sponsored by Lung Cancer Initiative. This annual grant is awarded to an emerging research leader pursuing a career in lung cancer. The project must focus on basic scientific research with the goal of impacting lung cancer care, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, or survivorship.

Funded Researchers - Lung Cancer Initiative Meet the researchers and past grantees Since 2008, Lung Cancer Initiative has funded $3. 9 million in lung cancer research. The goal of Lung Cancer Initiative‘s research program is to invest in the development of lung cancer experts and research to save lives.

By funding research we are providing opportunities for researchers earlier in their careers and encouraging continued growth and involvement in the field of lung cancer. LCI Research Partnerships Research Fellows Program Recipients: The LCI Research Fellowship program annually provides five $25,000 one-year fellowship grants for students who wish to pursue a career in lung cancer research, diagnosis, treatment and/or care.

Career Development Grant Recipients Through Lung Cancer Initiative’s Career Development Grant, LCI aims to support and provide research funding to emerging research leaders who plan to continue their career in the field of lung cancer.

Prior recipients of the Career Development Grant include: Eziafa Oduah, MD, PhD, MPH Duke University School of Medicine University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center Wake Forest University Health Sciences University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Alumni Supplemental Grant The goal of this grant is to help lung cancer researchers advance studies that are already underway and where additional funding is necessary to cover the cost of unanticipated time or resources needed to further the study or expand the original aims of the study.

All researchers funded since our inception in 2008 are eligible to apply for any ongoing research needs either related or not related to their specific projects funded by LCI. Investigators may apply for research into the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure of lung cancer. Researchers may reside and work outside of North Carolina.

Click here for more information about our recent Alumni Supplemental Grant recipient and other funded research awards. Applications are currently closed for this grant. Click here to listen to Dr. Jake Stein on the Research Evangelist with Dave Bjork!

Dr. Jake Stein is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Oncology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a medical oncologist with a clinical focus on caring for patients with sarcomas. He is a health services researcher who cites equity as one of his principle core values.

Dr. Stein earned his undergraduate degree from Emory University and his medical degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . He did his residency at the University of Washington and his fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . Dr. Stein was also a part of the LCI family as a Lung Cancer Initiative Research Fellow !

Vicky Amidon Innovation in Lung Cancer Award Winners Through the Vicky Amidon Innovation in Lung Cancer Research Grant, LCI aims to recognize and provide research funding for innovative lung cancer projects that will improve the lives of those diagnosed with lung cancer in North Carolina.

Previous recipients of this grant include: Limei Shen, PhD, UNC Chapel Hill Cody McHale, PhD and Anna Ivanina Foureau, PhD, Atrium Health Alan Chen, PhD, Duke University School of Medicine Andrew Bishop, PhD, Wake Forest School of Medicine Kenneth Adler, PhD, North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine Hongwei Du, PhD, UNC School of Medicine and Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center Salma Azam, PhD, UNC, En Fuego Therapeutics REACH Community Grant Recipients The REACH Community Grant Program awards funding of up to $10,000 to support community-based organizations and non-profit institutions in their collaborative efforts to holistically assist the entire lung cancer community, particularly those who are uninsured, underinsured, and most impacted.

See below for a list of prior funded projects. Young Investigator Research Grants Kavitha Yaddanapudi, PhD, University of Louisville Dr. Yaddanapudi and her research team have made the discovery that a stem cell-based vaccine can prevent the development of lung cancer in mice. Researchers believe this vaccine targets special cells, called cancer-initiating stem cells, which are responsible for tumor growth and spread.

With this grant, Dr. Yaddanapudi will further investigate how this vaccine works and evaluate its potential use in preventing lung cancer relapse, especially in patients with treatment-resistant lung cancers. This grant was funded through our partnership with Free to Breathe’s Young Investigator Research Grant Program. Assistant Professor, M.

D. Anderson Cancer Center Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is an aggressive form of lung cancer that hasn’t seen significant changes to standard-of-care treatments in more than 20 years. With low SCLC survival rates, there’s an urgent, unmet need for new treatment options.

In her previous research, Dr. Byers discovered that blocking a protein called PARP can help improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy for SCLC. But she has also found that tumors can learn how to adapt to PARP-blocking drugs. With this grant, Dr. Byers will examine how this resistance develops, and she’ll test new treatments that may help to overcome resistance to PARP-blocking drugs.

Rinat Zaynagetdinov, MD, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow, Vanderbilt University Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a condition in which the immune system responds to an outside irritant, causing inflammation in the airway. This inflammation is an unnatural state for the lungs to continue to experience, and leads to a higher risk of lung cancer for people with COPD.

Dr. Zaynagetdinov’s research seeks to understand how certain immune system cells present in inflammation, myeloid cells, promote lung cancer. This project is also investigating how a specific protein complex, NF-kB, affects the formation of those immune cells.

Ultimately, this research could lead to new methods for preventing lung cancer, particularly in people with COPD Visiting Fellow, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health The risk of developing lung cancer differs between individuals depending in part upon the genes they carry and their exposure to cancer-causing chemicals and agents.

Genetic variation of a region on chromosome 6 appears to result in a greater risk of developing lung cancer regardless of a person’s smoking history. By determining the sequence of DNA in the region, Dr. Simpson may be able to find the specific mutations responsible for this increased risk. In addition, Dr. Simpson will continue to look for genes in other regions of the genome that may also affect lung cancer risk.

Identification of gene markers indicating higher risk of lung cancer may ultimately improve early detection of the disease. Dr. Simpson’s research is supported by the North Carolina Lung Cancer Partnership. Assistant Professor, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Lung cancer patients may feel shame and guilt related to their disease due to the stigma of lung cancer’s association with smoking.

This stigma can negatively affect their care and treatment. Dr. Hamann is working to develop a way to measure lung cancer stigma, examine differences between what men and women experience, and study how stigma affects patients communications with their doctors. Learning more about lung cancer stigma will allow clinicians to directly address and reduce this stigma and eventually improve treatment and care for lung cancer patients.

Assistant Professor, Duke University Medical Center Dr. Onaitis is seeking to better understand the complexity of lung cancer tumors by characterizing tumor-initiating cells and how they respond to certain molecular signals. He will investigate how the type and location of a tumor-initiating cell contributes to the aggressiveness of the cancer.

A better understanding of the different types of cells within a tumor and how those cells are affected by cell signals could help develop more effective targeted therapies. This grant is also supported by the LUNGevity Foundation.