New Internal Pilot Projects Funded

The Karmanos Cancer Institute made an investment in funding new pilot projects and awarded $25,000 each to 16 internal Strategic Research Initiative Grant new pilot projects. These projects involve more than 30 Karmanos members from various research programs. The funding began on July 1, 2009 for a period of one year. The projects funded are listed alphabetically by title below.

Project Title Principal Investigator(s) A Systems Biology Approach to Identify Novel Mechanisms Linking Epigenetic Regulation, Cell Proliferation, Tumor Progression and Aging Lori Pile, Ph.D. Ahmad Heydari, Ph.D. Accuracy of the CancerGene Program to Estimate the Probability of a BRCA1/2 Mutation: Effect of Limited Family Structure Michael Simon, M.D. Are Observational Coding Systems of Trust in Breast Oncology Interactions Culturally Sensitive? Donyell Coleman, Ph.D. Sharon Mills-Wisneski, DNSc Kelly Brittain, M.S.N. DCE-MRI Imaging to Monitor Vascular Changes and Therapeutic Efficacy Induced by Combined Modalities for Murine Renal Cell Carcinoma Gilda Hillman, Ph.D. Mark Haacke, Ph.D. Lung Cancer and Bone Metastases Shirish Gadgeel, M.D. Fulvio Lonardo, M.D. Modulation of inducible regulatory T cells (iTreg) in cancer immunotherapy Venuprasad Poojary, Ph.D. Wei-zen Wei, Ph.D. Non-invasive Assessment of Tumor Cell Viability In Vivo Rod Braun, Ph.D.Bruce Berkowitz, Ph.D. Oncogene Profiling of Lung Cancers: Insight into the leading cause of cancer deaths Michele Cote, Ph.D. Ramsi Haddad, Ph.D. Patient Determinants of Non-Adherence to Phase II and III Oral Cancer Therapy Felicity Harper, Ph.D. Louis Penner, Ph.D. Elisabeth Heath, M.D. Prostate Cancer Proteasome as a Novel Molecular Target of Metal Complexes: Synthesis and Biological Validation in vitro and in vivo Claudio Verani, Ph.D. Q. Ping Dou, Ph.D. Protease Signaling on the Cell-Surface of Breast Cancer Cells: Role of Matriptase Mediated Activation of the Proto-Oncogene c-Met Julie Boerner, Ph.D. Karin List, Ph.D. Roles of Endoplasmic Reticulum Factor ERLIN2 in Malignancy Maintenance and Therapy Resistance in Breast Cancer Zeng-Quan Yang, Ph.D. Kezhong Zhang, Ph.D. Synthetic Genetic Interactions & Cancer Therapy George Brush, Ph.D. Russell Finley Jr., Ph.D. The Cancer Palmitoyl-Proteome Nicholas Davis, Ph.D. Raymond Mattingly, Ph.D. The Potential for Therapeutic Targeting Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma with PCFT-targeted cytotoxins Larry Matherly, Ph.D. John Graff, Ph.D. The Role of Iroquis homeobox gene 4 in Breast Cancer Tumorigenesis and Metastasis Guojun Wu, Ph.D.

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1. New Internal Pilot Projects Funded