JANUARY 2023 HEADLINES

Thomas George, M.D., FACP, associate director for clinical research at the UF Health Cancer Center, discussed findings from the phase 2 NRG-GI002 trial in an interview with OncLive at the ASCO GI Symposium.

Tasha Graham, M.B.A., C-TAGME, joined the Cancer Center from the department of graduate medical education in the UF College of Medicine, where she was involved in institutional DEI efforts.

Daiqing Liao, Ph.D., an associate professor in the department of anatomy and cell biology in the UF College of Medicine, has been awarded a $569,400 grant from the Florida Department of Health James and Esther King Biomedical Research Program to define the molecular mechanism and signaling pathways that promote DAXX-mediated lipid synthesis and resistance to ferroptosis in triple negative breast cancer models.

Elias Sayour, M.D., Ph.D., co-leader of the UF Health Cancer Center’s Cancer Therapeutics & Host Response research program, was interviewed by The Daily Beast about the potential of mRNA platforms as cancer vaccines.

Jianping Huang, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor in the department of neurosurgery in the UF College of Medicine, has been awarded a grant from the Live Like Bella® Pediatric Cancer Research Initiative to begin a phase I/II clinical trial for malignant pediatric gliomas using 8R-70CAR T cells.

Beth A. Virnig, Ph.D., dean of the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions and a Cancer Center member, was part of a new study on ransomware attacks on health care organizations. The study found these attacks more than doubled from 2016 to 2021, compromising tens of millions of patients’ personal information and potentially jeopardizing their care.

Chengguo Xing, Ph.D., a professor and associate chair in the department of medicinal chemistry in the UF College of Pharmacy, has been awarded a $295,000 grant from the Florida Department of Health Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research Program to evaluate the potential of AB-free kava against tobacco smoke–induced lung cancer.

Padraic O’Mally, M.D., will lead the division of urologic oncology in the UF department of urology in all aspects including clinical, education and research.

UF Health Cancer Center member Paul Crispen, M.D., and UF Health have actively participated in several industry and investigator-led clinical trials of new treatment agents for BCG-unresponsive bladder cancer over the past five years.

Weizhou Zhang, Ph.D., a professor in the department of pathology, immunology & laboratory medicine in the UF College of Medicine, has received a $2.5 million R01 grant from the National Cancer Institute to study a novel therapeutic strategy to treat renal clear cell carcinomas.

John Ligon, M.D., an assistant professor in the department of pediatrics in the University of Florida College of Medicine, has received a $200,000 grant from Hyundai Hope on Wheels for a study to test new treatments for osteosarcoma.

Satya Narayan, Ph.D., a professor in the department of anatomy & cell biology in the UF College of Medicine, has been awarded a $570,000 Florida Department of Health James and Esther King Biomedical Research Program grant to describe the discovery of a novel small molecule, biisoquinolinederivative (DH20931). This molecule stimulates ceramide synthase 2 (CerS2) activity and induces lipotoxic and endoplasmic reticulum stress as well as apoptosis in breast cancer cells.

Thomas George, M.D., FACP, associate director for clinical research at the Cancer Center, was quoted in a Medscape article on a study assessing a test that identifies which patients with stage II-IV resectable colorectal cancer are likely to benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy.

UF Health Cancer Center members Carl Denard, Ph.D., and Piyush Jain, Ph.D., both assistant professors in the department of chemical engineering, received the National Institutes of Health National Institute of General Medical Sciences R35 Early-Stage Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA).

As senior associate dean of graduate medical education, Cancer Center member Julia Close, M.D., works to improve training at UF.

About 100 people attended Blossoming Butterfly’s Blooming in Shades of Pink Fundraising Gala on Saturday, Jan. 21 at the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention. Blossoming Butterfly is a UF Health Cancer Center community partner. Jen Woodard, director of the Office of Community Outreach and Engagement, spoke at the event.