Media Contact
Noelle Toumey Reetz
Communications Manager
Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development
[email protected]
ATLANTA—Two Georgia State University researchers have been awarded funding grants from It’s the Journey and The Georgia Center for Oncology Research and Education (Georgia CORE) to continue their research on breast cancers that have a greater impact on African Americans.
Dr. Ritu Aneja of College of Arts and Sciences has been awarded $50,000. Dr. Dora Il’yasova of the School of Public Health has received a $25,000 grant.
Dr. Aneja, whose research is focused on resolving cancer-related racial disparities, will study triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), an aggressive form of the disease that more commonly affects African-American women. There are no targeted therapies approved for TNBC, and Dr. Aneja’s lab seeks to identify new treatment strategies.
Dr. Il’yasova will focus on Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC), another aggressive cancer more often found in African-American women. IBC develops rapidly, yet it cannot be detected via mammography. Her study will focus on the development of a novel protocol for rapid case assessment, working with cancer centers and health providers in southwest Georgia and southeastern Alabama. The goal is to identify environmental risk factors that increase the rates of IBC among women in these areas.
Together, It’s the Journey and Georgia CORE provided $175,000 to recognize creative ideas that may advance progress toward detecting, treating or curing breast cancer. Other awardees include Dr. Susan Thomas of the Georgia Institute of Technology and Dr. Mandi M. Murph of the University of Georgia.
“This one-year pilot funding supports investigators in achieving proof-of-principle,” says Nancy Paris, president and chief executive officer of Georgia CORE. “We support the researchers’ efforts to establish that an idea, invention or process is feasible so that they can move forward in applying for more extensive funding.”
Georgia CORE oversees the scientific review process in collaboration with the Georgia Research Alliance. Rating criteria included scientific importance, innovation, potential impact, investigator and institutional capacity, collaboration and inclusion of disparate populations.
Featured Researcher
Dora Il'yasova
Associate professor, epidemiology and biostatistics
School of Public Health
Ritu Aneja
Professor, biology
College of Arts and Sciences