The UF Health Cancer Center has awarded the 2024 American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant Pilot Projects to support early-stage investigators in cancer research. These five researchers will lead innovative studies to address some of the cancers that present the greatest burden to the communities of North Central Florida that the center serves, including lung and breast cancer. These investigators represent the future of cancer research at the UF Health Cancer Center and its commitment to supporting the next generation of innovators.
Learn more about their projects below.
Jae Jeong (JJ) Yang, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery, UF College of Medicine
UF Health Cancer Center Research Program: Cancer Control and Population Sciences
Prognostic Implications of Gut Microbial Metabolites among Patients with Lung Cancer: A Pilot Metabolomics Study in a Real-World Context
This study will investigate how gut microbial metabolism affects lung cancer outcomes. Lung cancer is the most lethal cancer, and the geographic area the center serves has higher rates of advanced-stage disease and mortality than the rest of Florida and the country.
The team aims to discover new biomarkers for predicting lung cancer outcomes and help develop innovative approaches based on gut microbiota profiling to improve lung cancer survival. The researchers will study more than 380 targeted microbial metabolites involved in other malignancies that are underexplored in lung cancer by analyzing blood samples taken after diagnosis.
Zhipeng Li, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, UF College of Medicine
UF Health Cancer Center Research Program: Mechanisms of Oncogenesis
Targeting Selenium and Ferroptosis as a Novel Therapeutic Strategy against Triple Negative Breast Cancer
This study will explore the cellular mechanisms involved in ferroptosis, a type of cell death, to identify new therapeutic targets in triple negative breast cancer, an aggressive type of breast cancer that disproportionately impacts young and minority women. Breast cancer is among the most prevalent cancers in North Central Florida, with rural communities having higher rates of advanced stages of the disease, as well as higher mortality.
Emerging evidence shows that ferroptosis kills various cancer cell types, and ferroptosis may provide a new way to eliminate persistent cancer cells. The researchers will assess whether limiting selenium to induce ferroptosis may be an effective strategy for holding back triple negative breast tumor growth.
Bowen Yan, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, UF College of Medicine
UF Health Cancer Center Research Program: Mechanisms of Oncogenesis
Unraveling the Impact of DNMT3AR882H Mutation on the Immune Microenvironment and Exploring Therapeutic Strategies in Acute Myeloid Leukemia
This project aims to develop new therapeutic strategies for patients with acute myeloid leukemia whose cancer harbors the DNMT3AR882H mutation. Leukemias with this mutation relapse quicker and those patients have worse survival outcomes. Using mouse models, the researchers will investigate how the mutation influences the immune microenvironment, potentially promoting the progression of leukemia and impacting patients’ response to therapy.
Nathan Seligson, Pharm.D.
Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacotherapy and Translational Research, UF College of Pharmacy
UF Health Cancer Center Research Program: Clinical Targeting and Therapeutics
Targeting Drug Resistance in Ewing Sarcoma
This project will study how a genomic variant in Ewing sarcoma drives resistance to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The researchers will assess whether drug resistance mechanisms affected by CDKN2A, one of the most common genomic abnormalities in Ewing sarcoma, can be targeted with drugs. The study aims to discover new treatment strategies to address drug resistance for a relatively uncommon cancer that afflicts children and young adults.
Maria Guijarro, Ph.D.
Assistant Scientist, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, UF College of Medicine
UF Health Cancer Center Research Program: Clinical Targeting and Therapeutics
New targeted therapy for PDAC
New targeted therapy for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma
This project aims to develop a new and effective treatment strategy for pancreatic cancer through innovative dual targeting of the enzyme TYMS and genetic mutation KRAS G12D. In the UF Health Cancer Center’s service area, advanced-stage pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is in the top 10 cancer types for both male and female patients.
Systemic treatments for advanced pancreatic cancer are limited and less than 20% of patients initially present as candidates for potentially curative surgery. These researchers plan to use patient-derived xenografts from cancer patients to test new drug combinations, with the goal of identifying new treatment regimens that improve clinical outcomes and survival.
