CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Ben Major, PhD., assistant professor of cell and developmental biology, has received a two-year $200,000 Kimmel Foundation Scholar Award from the Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research, one of 15 named nationally.
A member of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Major will use the award to support his ongoing efforts to better understand lung cancer progression. Using new and emerging technologies, the Major lab is exploring interactions among proteins that are altered during cancer progression, alterations that often promote cancer growth. Ultimately, the Major lab believes their research will help illuminate the mechanisms that drive lung cancer progression, and by doing so will provide novel approaches to develop new cancer treatments.
A total of 187 talented cancer researchers have been provided with grant money since the Foundation’s inception with each receiving a $200,000 award to further a specific cancer research project.
The Kimmel Scholar Awards were created in 1997 to advance the careers of gifted, young scientists involved in cancer research. Scientists are selected who show the greatest promise and innovation, but whose careers have not evolved sufficiently to provide them the critical mass of prior research that typically justifies receiving major grants from the National Cancer Institute and other funding sources.