Chapel Hill, NC - Several members of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center have successfully secured backing for several projects funded by a new, highly competitive federal grant program that aims to tackle high impact scientific and health challenges.

The National Institutes of Health’s new Challenge Grants initiative was announced earlier this year as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

Nationally, competition proved fierce for the program, with the NIH receiving more than 20,000 applications.

Thirteen UNC research projects received Challenge Grants totaling about $11.8 million over the next two years.

Under the program, the NIH has defined a number of challenge areas – focused on specific knowledge gaps, scientific opportunities, new technologies, data generation and research methods – where an influx of funds could quickly lead to results. Officials say the research should have a high impact in public health and biomedical or behavioral science.

UNC Lineberger projects (all for a two-year period) include:

• Scott Randell, PhD, Scott Hammond, PhD, and D. Neil Hayes, MD, all UNC Lineberger Members, will receive $1 million to study the role of miRNAs, newly discovered gene-like molecules important in normal cell development and diseases such as cancer, in the context of lung development and lung cancer. Of particular interest will be how miRNA expression contributes to abnormal cell development in response to environmental factors such as smoking.
• A $954,000 project based at the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and led by UNC Lineberger member Marci Campbell, PhD, aims to help low-income and overweight women in rural eastern North Carolina. The project will recruit women to join support groups for weight loss, financial literacy and moving out of poverty. Participants in the HOPE (Health, Opportunity, Partnerships and Empowerment) Account project will open savings accounts known as individual development accounts (IDAs) and will receive matching funds to apply toward furthering their education, buying a home or creating a business.
• Stephen Frye, PhD, professor of medicinal chemistry and natural products, director of the center for integrative chemical biology and drug discovery, and UNC Lineberger member, will receive $873,000 to study proteins involved in regulating the genetic material chromatin, and exploring how chromatin’s control of gene expression and gene silencing is relevant in normal and disease biology. When the proteins that control chromatin are deranged, cancer can develop.

Including the NIH Challenge Grants, UNC Lineberger members have been awarded ARRA grants or awards worth more than $35.9 million since March.

For more information on UNC challenge grants, see:  http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/3122/1/