Four Wayne State University researchers have obtained American Cancer Society – Institutional Research Grants of $30,000 each for one year to help fund their research.

The grants are provided annually to four researchers at the School of Medicine and the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute.

This year’s winners and their research project titles include:

Aliccia Bollig-Fischer, Ph.D., assistant professor of Oncology, for “Characterization of 5-hydroxymethyl-cytosine in breast cancer.”

Lydia Choi, M.D., breast surgeon and assistant professor of Surgical Oncology, for “Ultrasound tomography for breast imaging.”

Nicholas Szerlip, M.D., assistant professor of Neurosurgery, for “Therapeutic implications of the SUR1/TRPM4 complex: and inducible mechanism of cell death in glioblastomas.”

Guojun Wu, Ph.D., assistant professor of Oncology and the Breast Cancer Biology Program, for “The role of PDGFRs in Foxq1 induced stem cell states and breast cancer metastasis.”

American Cancer Society ACS-IRG funds provide seed money to support junior faculty members with an interest in cancer research who do not have national grant support. Investigators must be an assistant professor or equivalent and must be within six years of their first independent faculty appointment to be eligible for the grants.