Four early-career scientists have each been awarded a one-year, $40,000 American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant through University of Iowa Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center.

These seed grants help junior faculty members and independent research scientists start their careers in cancer research, and provide funds to explore new ideas related to the cause, prevention, and treatment of cancer.

New grant recipients

Dustin Bosch, MD PhD, Assistant Professor of Pathology 

Project: Prognostic value of intestinal bacteria and microbiome functional genomics in colorectal carcinoma

Marisa Buchakjian, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery

Project: Role of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition of Perineural Invasion in Oral Cavity Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Colin Kenny, PhD, BSc, Assistant Professor of Surgery

Project: Regulation of Melanoma Phenotype-Switching by the MiT/TFE transcription factor family

Moon Ley Tung, MBBS, MRCP, FRCPath, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Medical Genetics & Genomics

Project: Liquid biopsies in pediatric brain tumors using nanopore sequencing