PQHS Cancer-Focused Pilot Project Program

In 2021, the Population and Quantitative Health Sciences Cancer-Focused Pilot Project Program—was established to foster exciting science and innovation in cancer research at UMass Chan Medical School. The goal of the program is to provide support for cancer discoveries at their earliest phase and facilitate further development of projects to a stage when they can obtain external support.

This program was initiated by the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences to provide funding for cancer-focused projects. Funding for these pilot projects was provided by PQHS, the UMass Cancer Center, and the National Cancer Institute (through a multi-center P50 grant iDAPT: Implementation and Informatics – Developing Adaptable Processes and Technologies for Cancer Control).

In 2021, two projects were funded through this program:

Developing computational methods of genome-wide detection of fusion circular RNAs in chronic myeloid leukemia

PIs: Chan Zhou, PhD, and Minggang Fang, PhD

Using psychophysiological technology to develop a mood-tailored intervention for smoking cessation (Adapt2YourMood)

PIs: Rajani Sadasivam, PhD, and Elise Stevens, PhD