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Upcoming Events

Dec.

2

The Tumor Immune Microenvironment and HPV Tumor Status in Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Esther Lam, PhD student, Wendy Cozen Lab

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Plumwood House / Showa Denko Lecture Hall and via Zoom

Join via Zoom

Dec.

4

Innovate Biomedical Research, Education and Training To Grow Next-Gen Talents, Donghui Zhu, PhD, FAHA, FAIMBE

3:30 PM - 4:00 PM - Coffee & Refreshments

4:00 PM - 5:00 PM - Presentation

Host: Physician Scientist Collective Network

Sprague Hall, Conference Room 105

Register Here

Dec.

4

Research in Progress Quarterly Seminar: Aimee Edinger, VMD/PhD

Controlling Intracellular Traffic to Treat Cancer and Obesity

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

Hosts: Warren Chow, MD, FACP and David Fruman, PhD

Register for Zoom Link Here

Dec.

6

Combining Classical Genetics and Genomic Technologies: Improving Chromosome Rearrangement Diagnosis to Enhance Patient Care, Fabiola Quintera-Rivera, MD, DABMGG, FACMG

10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Host: Genomics Research and Technology Hub (GRT Hub)

Join via Zoom

Dec.

20

Stem Cell Seminar Lecture Series: Benjamin Freedman, PhD

Human Kidney Organoids for Disease Modeling and Regeneration

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

UCI Gross Hall, Thorp Conference Center (4th floor)

Jan.

9

CRI Inaugural Fan-Feldman Lecture:  Robert Schreiber, PhD

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

UCI School of Medicine

TBA

Jan.

16

Dean's Distinguished Lecture Series, Nancy Carrasco, MD

Part One - A Look into the Black Box: Uncovering the Remarkable Biology of an Elusive Protein  

7:00 PM

The Beckman Center, Irvine

Register Here

Jan.

17

Dean's Distinguished Lecture Series, Nancy Carrasco, MD

Part Two - The Tale of the Sodium/Iodide Symporter (NIS): From Cloning to Structure 

7:00 PM

UCI Medical Education Building

Register Here

Belonging, Equity and Empowerment (BEE) Scene

Accepting Nominations! Learning about each other cultivates an inclusive environment where everyone feels empowered to contribute and succeed. Nominate a colleague for a spotlight showcasing their unique stories beyond their roles at the CFCCC. Faculty, staff, and self-nominations are encouraged.

Beyond Cancer Spotlight: Hoda Anton-Culver, PhD


For Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, we’re honored to spotlight Dr. Hoda Anton-Culver, a leading expert in genetic epidemiology and cancer research. With over four decades of experience, Dr. Anton-Culver has made groundbreaking contributions to pancreatic cancer research and other cancers, focusing on genetic predisposition and prevention. As a mentor at UC Irvine, she has also shaped the next generation of researchers. Beyond her professional achievements, she enjoys painting, exploring national parks, and hosting family and friends. Discover more about her remarkable career and personal interests!

Learn More About Dr. Anton-Culver

New Staff & Promotions

Hai Tran, MPA, CPHQ


Director of Business Intelligence & Data Analytics


haivt@hs.uci.edu


Hai has served as the Data Analytics Manager for the cancer center since 2022. Before joining the cancer center, Hai spent 10 years at UCI Health in various departments as the Business Intelligence and Analytics lead. He is an integral part of our Administration leadership team, leading our efforts to turn data into actionable insight, including overseeing our data dashboards for Research Program metrics tracking, Shared Resources usage, Clinical Performance, and Demographics. In addition, he has developed an Orange County Catchment Area dashboard that visually communicates complex and diverse data on cancer incidence and mortality, risk factors, healthcare access, and social determinants of health. We are lucky to have him on our team. 


Congratulations Hai on this well-deserved promotion!



Celina Leon


Clinical Research Finance Analyst


mcleon@hs.uci.edu


Born and raised in sunny Southern California, Celina brings over 20 years of experience in Accounting and Finance to the team. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Business from the University of Redlands and has worked in various roles across both small businesses and large Fortune 500 companies. Most recently, she was with a medical device company in Lake Forest, CA. 

If you'd like to connect with Celina, feel free to reach out to her at mcleon@hs.uci.edu.



Announcements

Flu and COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign


As a reminder, the flu and COVID-19 vaccination deadlines are quickly approaching. The UC policy on vaccination programs requires all employees to get vaccinated or decline the vaccination by the deadline.


FLU Vaccination Deadline: December 1, 2024

COVID-19 Vaccination Deadline: December 6, 2024


Click here for more information about the UC Policy on Vaccination Programs.

UCI Health Clinical Research Website Launch


We're excited to announce the launch of the new UCI Clinical Research website! This platform marks a significant step forward in advancing medical knowledge and providing valuable resources to patients, researchers, healthcare professionals and sponsors.


Visit the website at clinicalresearch.ucihealth.org

Experimental Tissue Shared Resource (ETR) Offers Custom Tissue Microarray and Brightfield Whole Slides Scanning


The ETR is excited to discuss your project’s study design and tissue needs. We can now create custom tissue microarrays (TMA) with tissue you provide or human tissue remnants and scan whole histology slides at 40X. Selection of optimal representative tissue regions can be performed by our pathologist. 

 

We can provide histology support for special transcriptomics platforms supported by GTH Share Resource

 

Questions? Contact Delia Tifrea, ETR Core Manager, 714-872-1093.

Biobehavioral Shared Resource (BBSR) Consultation & Comprehensive Project Request is Live


The BBSR is excited to discuss your project’s study design and needs, as well as see how our new menu of services can best support your project goals.


During our “Consultation Meeting” we’ll learn more about your project and how the BBSR can support your team. Ready to schedule? Complete the "Consultation Request" on iLab.


Questions? Contact Jose Lechuga, BBSR Core Manager.

Biostatistics Shared Resource (BSR) - In-person Walk-in or Zoom Consultations Available


Informal statistical in-person walk-in or via Zoom consultations are available to discuss your study design and statistical needs. 


With Wen-pin Chen, MS, Senior Statistician & Manager for BSR:

Funding Opportunities

For a curated list of internal, federal and foundation funding opportunities, please refer to CFCCC's Funding Opportunities webpage. Highlighted funding opportunities are listed below.


UCI & UC FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES


2024-2025 Mary Kay Ash Foundation Research Grant

The Mary Kay Ash Foundation is a non-profit public foundation, which focuses on funding research for innovative grants for translational research of cancers affecting women (ovarian, uterine, breast, endometrial or cervical cancer among others). Translational research is broadly defined as research that will provide a scientific link between laboratory research and the clinic. Such research would lead to improvement in diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, or treatment of the cancer.

$100k / 2 yrs

Deadline: December 13, 2024

Learn More and Apply >>


CSUF/UCI-CFCCC Cancer Health Equity Research Program (CHERP), 2024 Pilot Research Projects Request for Applications (Researchers)

Focus: CHERP is a collaborative cancer-specific partnership between CSUF and UCI-CFCCC that aims to support highly interactive pilot cancer health disparities research that will not only advance cancer health disparities knowledge, but also serve as foundational training in this area of need for underrepresented undergraduate (CSUF) and master’s level (CSUF/UCI) students.

One R03-like pilot project for $100,000 direct cost for 1 year

Deadline: December 9, 2024

Learn More and Apply >>


UC Pancreatic Cancer Consortium Early Detection Awards

The UC Pancreatic Cancer Consortium (UCPCC) proposes to fund up to two 2-year pilot projects in novel areas of early detection for pancreatic cancer. The goal is to promote the highest quality clinical, basic, or population science with translational potential. Projects must propose highly original strategies to address the challenges of early detection in pancreatic cancer and not simply represent new applications of single analyte biomarkers.

Deadline: December 1, 2024

Learn More and Apply >>


UCI CFCCC: A1 Bridge

Up to $20k in bridge funding to investigators who have received scores on NIH grant applications (i.e., not triaged) that have missed the funding pay line and will be resubmitted.

Applications: Due on a rolling basis

Learn More and Apply >>

FOUNDATION FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES


Lustgarten Foundation-AACR Career Development Award for Pancreatic Cancer Research, in Honor of John Robert Lewis

Focus area: early career scientists engaged in pancreatic cancer research. The proposed project may be basic, translational, clinical, or population sciences-related research and must have direct applicability and relevance to the understanding, detection, diagnosis, or treatment of pancreatic cancer.

$300k / 3 years

Letter of Intent: November 2024

Applications: January 9, 2025

Learn More and Apply >>


St. Baldrick's Foundation Summer Fellow Awards

Focus area: undergraduate, graduate, and medical school students who will work in a pediatric oncology research setting for a summer.

$5k / 8-10 weeks in the summer

Proposals due: February 20, 2025

Learn More and Apply >>

FEDERAL FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES


(New!) All of Us Research Program Funding Opportunity

Purpose: to speed up health research discoveries, enabling new kinds of individualized health care. To make this possible, the program is building one of the world’s largest and most diverse databases for health research. The program seeks for its participant cohort to reflect the diversity of the United States and its territories and to include individuals from groups that have been underrepresented in health research in the past.

Deadline: December 2, 2024

Learn More and Apply >>


(New!) Cancer Prevention and Control Clinical Trials Grant Program (R01 Clinical Trial Required)

Purpose: to provide support to promote research efforts on the potential to reduce the burden of cancer through improvements in early detection, screening, prevention and interception, healthcare delivery, quality of life, and/or survivorship related to cancer; with such attributes, the proposed studies should also have the potential to improve clinical practice and/or public health.

Letter of Intent: January 5, 2025

Applications: February 5, 2025

Learn More and Apply >>


(New!) National Cancer Institute's Investigator-Initiated Early Phase Clinical Trials for Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis (R01 Clinical Trial Required)

Purpose: to provide support to promote research efforts on early phase investigator-initiated clinical trials on cancer-targeted diagnostic and therapeutic interventions of direct relevance to the research mission of the NCI's DCTD and OHAM. 

Letter of Intent: January 5, 2025

Applications: February 5, 2025

Learn More and Apply >>


(New!) NCI Small Grants Program for Cancer Research (NCI Omnibus) (R03 Clinical Trial Optional) (PAR-25-078)

Purpose: to provide support to well-defined projects in any area of cancer research using the NIH R03 small grant mechanism.

Deadline: February 24, 2025

Learn More and Apply >>


(New!) The Metastasis Research Network (MetNet): MetNet Research Projects (U01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

Purpose: to provide support to promote research efforts on the use of integrative systems-level approaches to address a defined gap in metastasis research.

Letter of Intent: May 20, 2025

Applications: June 20, 2025

Learn More and Apply >>


Notice of Funding Opportunity: Mechanistic links between diet, lipid metabolism, and tumor growth and progression (UH2 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

Purpose: to provide support to applications that propose mechanistic investigations of the links between diet, lipid metabolism and tumor growth and progression. It is anticipated that this program will support fundamental studies designed to identify and define the molecular mechanisms through which lipid metabolism mediates tumor growth and progression, focusing specifically on the central role lipids play in linking diet with the biology of cancer; bridge the historically divided fields of nutrition and molecular metabolism; and stimulate research and tool development in this emerging area, which faces particular challenges because of the complexity of lipid biochemistry. 

Deadline: February 14, 2025

Learn More and Apply >>


Notice of Funding Opportunity: Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health (R21 Clinical Trial Optional)

Purpose: to support studies that will identify, develop, and/or test strategies for overcoming barriers to the adoption, adaptation, integration, sustainability, scale-up, and spread of evidence-based interventions, practices, programs, tools, treatments, guidelines, and policies (herein referred to collectively as evidence-based interventions). Studies that promote equitable dissemination and implementation of evidence-based interventions among underrepresented communities are encouraged. Conversely, there is a benefit in understanding circumstances that create a need to stop or reduce (de-implement) the use of practices that are ineffective, unproven, low-value, or harmful.

Deadline: February 16, 2025

Learn More and Apply >>


Notice of Funding Opportunity: Academic-Industrial Partnerships (AIP) to Translate and Validate In Vivo Imaging Systems (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)

Purpose: to stimulate translation of scientific discoveries and engineering developments in imaging, data science and/or spectroscopic technologies into methods or tools that address contemporary problems in understanding the fundamental biology, potential risk of development, diagnosis, or treatment of cancer.

Deadline: February 5, 2025

Learn More and Apply >>


Notice of Funding Opportunity: Modular R01s in Cancer Control and Population Sciences (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)

Purpose: to provide support to promote research efforts on novel scientific ideas that have the potential to substantially advance cancer research in statistical and analytic methods, epidemiology, cancer survivorship, cancer-related behaviors and behavioral interventions, health care delivery, digital health and data science, and implementation science.

Deadline: February 5, 2025

Learn More and Apply >>


Notice of Special Interest: Administrative Supplements for Assessing Capacity to Address Obesity for Cancer Prevention and Control

Purpose: to support ongoing developments in obesity prevention indicate that using multiple policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) approaches across the diverse sectors that influence obesity offer considerable promise, but few efforts have been made to carefully evaluate such whole of systems, or PSE, approaches. Foundational work is needed to help set the stage for investigators from academic institutions, cancer centers, other research organizations, and community partners to lead collaborative groups to organize, implement, and evaluate such approaches. Furthermore, determining which specific combination of PSE approaches are most appropriate for a specific community requires significant preparatory work.

Deadline: February 3, 2025

Learn More and Apply >>


Notice of Funding Opportunity: Biomedical Research Facilities (C06 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

Purpose: eligible academic and research institutions to apply for funding to modernize existing or construct new biomedical research facilities. Applications will be accepted from public and private nonprofit institutions of higher education, as well as from non-profit research organizations. Applications from both research-intensive institutions and Institutions of Emerging Excellence (IEE) in biomedical research from all geographic regions in the nation are strongly encouraged.

Letter of Intent: December 16, 2024

Learn More and Apply >>


Notice of Special Interest: Conferences and Scientific Meetings in Cancer Biology

Purpose: Support innovative conferences, symposia, and workshops that explore basic, fundamental questions in areas of cancer biology

Deadline: December 12, 2024

Learn More and Apply >>

Newsroom

Endometrial cancer surge in young women linked to obesity


Endometrial cancer has risen dramatically in recent years among women under 40, baffling reproductive health experts. UCI Health gynecologists compared two decades of data and now report that the alarming increase among younger women is strongly correlated with soaring obesity rates. They are calling for a concerted campaign to educate women and their doctors about the risk obesity poses for developing endometrial adenocarcinoma.


Read More >>

Measuring cholesterol to understand breast cancer risk can be tricky


Researchers used All of Us Research Program data to help clear up the confusion around cholesterol levels and breast cancer risk. They found that high levels of bad cholesterol and high total cholesterol levels were related to a higher risk of breast cancer.


Read More >>

NIH Boosts Cancer Health Disparities Research through All of Us


The National Institutes of Health has provided additional funding to four grantee partners to leverage the power and diversity of the All of Us Research Program's dataset to develop more precise cancer prevention, detection, and treatment tools.


Read More >>

CBCRP-funded study shows Manuka honey reduced tumor growth in animal models


UCLA researchers found that Manuka honey significantly reduced tumor growth in mice with ER-positive breast cancer cells without affecting normal breast cells or causing major side effects.


Read More >>

UC awards $6 million to research aimed at reducing cancer among firefighters


Occupational exposures to carcinogens are a leading cause of cancer in firefighters, and cancer is the leading cause of death among firefighters. Yet research targeting firefighter cancers specifically has not placed the occupational experiences of firefighters at the center. The new California Firefighter Cancer Prevention and Research Program funds research co-led by California-based firefighters and UC researchers to address this critical research gap in order to reduce and prevent cancer. RGPO is excited to announce the eight funded awards.


Read More >>

Questions? Contact us at cfcccadmin@hs.uci.edu