The Breast Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama (BCRFA) made an investment of $1,225,000 in Alabama-based breast cancer research for 2021.

BCRFA grants fund 20 research projects statewide, including the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB, Auburn University, CerFlux, the Mitchell Cancer Institute at the University of South Alabama, the University of Alabama, Southern Research and HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology. This year’s grant awards increase BCRFA’s investment to more than $12 million since 1996.

Dr. Barry Sleckman is director of UAB’s O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center. (UAB)

“As the largest Alabama-based funder of breast cancer research across the state, the BCRFA has seen the undeniable power of research in accelerating the progress of treatments and outcomes for patients facing the disease,” said Beth Bradner Davis, BCRFA executive director. “We are proud that this historic investment – our largest ever – will continue to fuel breakthroughs and advance our mission to save lives.”

BCRFA dollars often function as seed funding for developing studies, allowing researchers to generate data needed to attract major national funding. Many BCRFA-funded projects have received grants from the National Institutes of Health and others.

“The BCRFA has been an incredible partner of the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center for 25 years,” said Dr. Barry Sleckman, director of the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB. “By funding critical early-stage projects, the BCRFA is driving local discoveries that have a critical impact on breast cancer prevention, detection and treatment in the state of Alabama and beyond.”

BCRFA funding is made possible with support from corporate partners; local, state and federal funders; event patrons; community partners, generous individual donors; and sales of the Breast Cancer Research specialty license plate. Nearly 14,000 vehicles in Alabama sport the Breast Cancer Research tag, available at DMVs across the state. One hundred percent of tag sale proceeds received by the BCRFA support local, lifesaving research.

BCRFA Executive Director Bradner Davis, left, and board member Laura Hinton show off the generous contribution made by the organization in 2021. (BCRFA)

Grantees in the Birmingham area include:

 CerFlux

• Karim Budhwani – “Predictive Personalized Oncology Efficacy Test (POET) to Improve Breast Cancer (BC) Treatment Outcomes.”

 Southern Research

• Corinne Augelli-Szafran – “Development of novel clofarabine analogs for breast cancer therapy.”

 UAB O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center

• Dr. Ahmed Elkhanany – “Single-Arm Study of Osimertinib (TAGRISSO) and Olaparib (LYNPARZA) in Patients with Metastatic Triple Negative Breast Cancer (O2 Study).”
• Xu Feng and Douglas Hurst – “RANK Signaling Pathways in Breast Cancer Development.”
• Selvarangan Ponnazhagan – “Combinatorial genetic immunotherapy and RANKL antagonism for breast cancer.”
• Dr. Laura Rogers; Robert Motl; Elliot Lefkowitz; Robert Oster – “Exercise, gut microbiome, and breast cancer: increasing reach to underserved populations.”
• Jamil Saad and Yabing Chen – “Structural basis for Fas-mediated apoptosis and mechanisms of inhibition in breast cancer.”
• Rajeev Samant; David Schneider; James Mobley; and Dongquan Chen – “Characterization of hypoxia-specific adaption of ribosomes.”
• Lalita Shevde-Samant; David Schneider; Dongquan Chen; and Jim Mobley – “Hedgehog activity regulates nucleolar response to ribosomal DNA damage in breast cancer.”
• Dr. Josephine Shinn – “The Management of Papillomatosis.”
• Keshav Singh – “Targeting Mitochondria in TNBC by Novel Inhibitors.”
• Lizhong Wang; Jianmei Leavenworth; Shi Wei; Sejong Bae; and Lei Stanley Qi (Stanford University) – “CRISPR-perturbation single-cell platform to dissect the tumor-immune interaction and metastasis.”

Additional 2021 grantees include:

 Auburn University (Auburn)

• Panagiotis Mistriotis – “Integrating bioengineering tools, genome-wide genetic screens and in vivo models to discover new determinants of triple negative breast cancer cell invasion.”
• Jingjing Qian – “Improving Breast Cancer Survival in Alabama – The Role of Medications.”
• Gary Piazza and Donald Buchsbaum – “A novel β-Catenin blocker that activates antitumor immunity for breast cancer” (with UAB O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center).

HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology (Huntsville)

• Sara Cooper – “Screening for Inherited Breast Cancer Risk in the Black Belt.”

The University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa)

• Brandon Kim – “Breast cancer patient derived blood-brain barrier modeling to assess metastatic potential.”

University of South Alabama Mitchell Cancer Institute (Mobile)

• • Santanu Dasgupta – “Exploring mitochondrial whole genome in Triple Negative Breast Cancer.”
  • Lyudmila Rachek – “Gene expression analysis in mouse breast cancer models with mitochondrial targeted TAT-hOGG1.”
  • Robert Sobol – “Overcoming breast cancer resistance to PARG inhibitor-induced cell death by NAD-modulation.”

This story originally appeared on the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s UAB News website.