The Breast Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama (BCRF) has awarded funds for three new projects through the O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham's O'Neal Invests research program.

The O'Neal Invests program funds UAB investigators starting new cancer-related projects to initiate key, preliminary work needed to enable competitive R01 applications from the National Institutes of Health.

The BCRFA's newly funded projects include:

Characterization of hypoxia-specific adaption of ribosomes by Rajeev Samant, PhD, UAB Department of Pathology.

CRISPR-perturbation single-cell platform to dissect the tumor-immune interaction and metastasis by Lizhong Wang, MD, PhD, UAB Department of Genetics.

Structural basis for Fas-mediated apoptosis and mechanisms of inhibition in breast cancer by Jamil Saad, Ph.D., Department of Microbiology; and Yabing Chen, PhD, UAB Department of Pathology.

During the last 25 years, the BCRFA has invested more than $11 million in breast cancer research in Alabama. Its awards to the O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center have resulted in over $43 million in additional federal/national funds for the center, as well as 267 publications and five patents.