Grants, Honors, Awards & Recognitions

Boris Dimitrov is investigating how a small population of triple-negative breast cancer cells evades iron-dependent cell death to initiate metastasis.

Marcus Ruscetti, PhD, and Prabhani Atukorale, PhD, have received an NCI R01 grant to advance a multi-targeted nanoparticle-based immunotherapy designed to improve treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Sharon Cantor, PhD, has received an R01 grant from the National Cancer Institute to explore the role of BRCA1 in coordinating lagging strand DNA synthesis, with implications for developing new treatments for hereditary breast and ovarian cancers, including tumors resistant to PARP inhibitors.

Scot Wolfe, PhD, is developing a CRISPR-Cas9 strategy to selectively destroy cancer cells driven by focal gene amplification.

Richard Gregory, PhD, is one of eight scientists in the country to receive a 2026 Lotus Award from the Pershing Square Foundation to advance innovative ovarian cancer research.

Recent MCCB graduate Michael Lero, PhD, has received the Cancer Biology Program Director’s Award for Distinguished Graduate Scholarship at UMass Chan Medical School.

Marcus Ruscetti, PhD, has received the 2026 Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize in recognition of his innovative research accelerating progress toward a cure for pancreatic cancer.

Xin Yang, PhD, an Instructor in the Gregory Lab, has received an NIH R03 grant to develop a method for mapping the 3-methylcytidine (m3C) RNA modification in cancer.

Craig Ceol, PhD, will study whether targeting the bone morphogenetic protein signaling ligand GDF6 can provide an effective therapy for immunotherapy-resistant melanoma.

Sharon Cantor has identified a targetable vulnerability in BRCA1-deficient cells—a finding with potential implications for the treatment of inherited breast and ovarian cancers.