NEWS RELEASE
DECEMBER 2020
Michigan Ovarian Cancer Alliance Announces 
2020 Research Grant Recipients
The Michigan Ovarian Cancer Alliance (MIOCA) announces its 2020 Research Grant Recipients. Since it began awarding grants in 2014, MIOCA has provided $600,000 to researchers in Michigan who are finding new ways to improve the early detection and treatment of ovarian cancer.

MIOCA is pleased to announce two Geri Fournier Ovarian Cancer Research Award recipients in 2020. The Award, named for the Founders’ mother who helped establish MIOCA before her death from ovarian cancer in 2011, was created to recognize and provide funding for the critical research happening in the state. 

The state of Michigan is fortunate to have outstanding ovarian cancer researchers, and this year’s winners represent two institutions who are leading the way:
Geeta Mehta, Ph.D.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan "Synergistic combination of oxidative phosphorylation and PDGF inhibitors for treatment of ovarian cancers.”
“My lab is committed to improving cure rates for ovarian cancers. One of the approaches through which my lab can contribute towards this challenging goal, is to predict therapy outcomes for women, using a small number of their own tumor cells. By utilizing FDA approved and well-studied drugs, the latency between lab discovery regarding synergism of drug combinations, and translation to clinic, can be significantly reduced.
 
The MIOCA funded project will investigate the means to disrupt the interactions between tumor and stromal cells, in order to target the heterogeneous tumor microenvironments in ovarian cancers."
Zhanjun Hou, Ph.D. & Larry H. Matherly, Ph.D.
Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, Wayne State University School of Medicine "Novel Targeted Therapeutics to Ovarian Cancer”
"Dr. Matherly and Dr. Hou discovered an entirely unique class of therapeutics that selectively targets and inhibits processes essential to the survival of epithelial ovarian cancers. With support from the MIOCA, we hope to identify which analogs of this series offer the best balance of anti-tumor activity and tumor selectivity for clinical trials."
Due to the lack of an early detection test, only 15% of ovarian cancer is diagnosed early, and continues nationally to be a leading cause of gynecological cancer deaths. Additionally, many women are not aware of the signs and symptoms of the disease. Funding for ovarian cancer research is vital to promote new scientific advances in detection and improved treatment outcomes. Therefore, research grants have been an integral part of MIOCA’s mission and we are excited to announce this year’s award recipients. 

More information on MIOCA can be found at 
www.mioca.org. | info@mioca.org