The University of Massachusetts Boston and the Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC) have been granted $8.5 million over five years from the National Institutes of Health to support their U54 Comprehensive Partnership for Cancer Disparities Research. UMass Boston and the DF/HCC have been in partnership for over 13 years, working together to end cancer disparities and train the next generation of cancer researchers.
The U54 partnership takes a two-pronged approach to cancer research. In addition to funding traineeships at the undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate level for underrepresented minority students in the life sciences, the program funds research that seeks to address disparities in cancer care. Three research projects are already under way, and more will be added over the next five years.
Adán Colón-Carmona, associate professor of biology at UMass Boston, is principal investigator on the U54 partnership. Jill Macoska, director of the Center for Personalized Cancer Therapy (CPCT) at UMass Boston, is co-principal investigator. Dr. Macoska is a Project Leader with the University of Wisconsin & University of Massachusetts-Boston O’Brien Center for Benign Urologic Research.