Milestones: VU professor wins major grant
By the Tennessean
December 22, 2009
David Carbone, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine, cell and developmental biology and cancer biology, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, has been awarded nearly a million dollars in federal stimulus funds to study lung cancer among minorities.
The research is with polymorphisms or genetic variations among minorities with non-small cell lung cancer.
Carbone and his colleagues plan to use the two-year grant from the National Cancer Institute to focus on African-Americans diagnosed with lung cancer.
“We know that African-Americans have a significantly greater risk of developing lung cancer than whites, Hispanics or Japanese Americans,” Carbone said in a news statement.
“Lung cancer mortality rates also are higher for African-American males than any other ethnic group. We are searching for genetic mutations that may explain higher rates of disease as well as differences in how some groups of patients respond to treatment. This research grant will help us identify those genetic variables and try to determine how they affect the disease process and assist us in improving treatment for this group of patients.”
Carbone will serve as principal investigator for the Challenge Grant from the National Institutes of Health. The NIH has allocated $200 million to the Challenge Grants, which are designed to “jumpstart” projects in biomedical and behavioral research. More than 21,000 applications have been submitted and only 3 percent are expected to be funded.
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