$3 million in funding awarded through UF/Moffitt collaboration

The recipients of $3 million in research funding through the UF/Moffitt Collaboration Fall 2008 Competition have been named.

The University of Florida Office of Research, the UF College of Medicine and the Moffitt Cancer Center created the fund to finance collaborative pilot research projects at the two institutions. Thirty-two projects in basic science, clinical investigations and population science were selected.

The monies will foster initiatives that will further researchers' scientific endeavors while helping them prepare for the development of a consortium-style National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center.Each project proposal includes at least one scientist from both UF and Moffitt. The approach is designed to support rich interactions in basic science, population science, clinical investigations and translational research.

"These are not individually very large grants, but they are meant to kick-start joint projects, the goal being to either lead to publications or grant applications prior to the resubmission of the cancer center grant from the NCI that Moffitt and now UF will be a part of," said Dr. Joseph V. Simone, director of the UF Shands Cancer Center and physician-in-chief of cancer services for Shands at UF medical center.

UF, Shands HealthCare and Moffitt announced in January they are working together to develop world-class programs in cancer care, research and prevention.

The UF and Moffitt grant recipients are:

Basic Science - Kevin D. Brown, UF, and Alvaro Montiero, Moffitt; Edward Chan, UF, and Jin Q. Cheng, Moffitt; Lung-Ji Chang, UF, and Sheng Wei and Alan F. List, Moffitt; Stephen Grobmyer, UF, and David L. Morse, Moffitt; Steven Hochwald, UF, and Said Sebti, Moffitt; Emina Huang and Ed Scott, UF, and J.M. Koomen, Moffitt; Brian Law, UF, and Doug Cress, Moffitt; Chen Liu and David Nelson, UF, and Dmitry Gabrilovich, Moffitt; Peter Sayeski, UF, and Gary Reuther, Moffitt.

Clinical Investigations - Timothy Garrett, UF, and Hatem Soliman, Moffitt; Lung-Ji Chang, UF, and Melissa Alsina, Moffitt; William Farmerie, UF, and Gerold Bepler, Moffitt; Steven Hochwald, UF, and Prakash Chinnaiyan, Moffitt; Huabei Jiang, UF, and Margaret Szabunio, Moffitt; Chen Liu, UF, and Xue-Zhong Yu, Moffitt; James Lynch Jr., UF, and Eduardo Sotomayor, Moffitt; David Ostrov, UF, and Gary W. Litman, Moffitt; Thomas Rowe, UF, and Daniel M. Sullivan, Moffitt; Tariq Siddiqui, UF, and Scott Antonia, Moffitt; and Dietmar Siemann, UF, and Amyn M. Rojiani, Moffitt.

Population Science - Kevin D. Brown, UF, and Erin Siegel, Moffitt; Christopher Cogle, UF, and Dana Rollison, Moffitt; Virginia Jones Dodd, UF, and David Schenck, Moffitt; Virginia Jones Dodd, UF, and Ellen Daley, Moffitt; Maureen Goodenow, UF, and Anna Giuliano, Moffitt; Barbara Hastie, UF, and Paul Jacobsen, Moffitt; I-Chan Huang, UF, and Gwendolyn Quinn, Moffitt;Michael Kladde, UF, and Matthew Schabath, Moffitt; Todd Manini, UF, and Martine Extermann, Moffitt; Stephanie Staras, UF, and Susan Vadaparampil, Moffitt; and Weihong Tan, UF, and Cathy Phelan, Moffitt.

Grants were awarded on a competitive basis, and proposals had to contain a clear cancer focus and have a high potential to be clinically relevant.