CBCRP Awards $9.8 Million for New Research Grants

Laurence Fitzgerald, Ph.D., CBCRP Core Funding Manager

The CBCRP has offered $9.8 million in funding to 53 new research projects based in 33 institutions and community organizations throughout California.

Highlights of this year’s CBCRP new grant portfolio include:

The CBCRP received over 200 applications for this year’s funding cycle. Each application underwent a rigorous two-phase evaluation process, including scientific review by experts from around the country. Although the overall success rate of 26 percent was identical for the 2005 and 2006 funding cycles, there were some significant changes in the portfolio distribution. For our award types, in 2006, the CBCRP funded more Community Research Collaboration awards, and the dollar amount for these increased almost four-fold. There was a modest decrease in funding for postdoctoral fellowships and an increased dollar amount for IDEAs. In the IDEA category, we offer this award to both established and “junior investigators” (i.e., at a career level past postdoctoral, but less than three years as an independent investigator). We received 32 applications from junior investigators and funded six grants (19 percent). Thus, junior investigators competed equally for IDEA funding.

In terms of priority issue funding, for 2006 there was an almost 2.5-fold increase in funding for both the Detection, Prognosis, & Treatment and Community Impact categories. The Biology of the Breast Cell and Etiology& Prevention categories showed decreases in funding of 40 percent and 30 percent, respectively.

A full report on funding for this year, including the review and selection process, has been published in our 2006 CBCRP Cycle 12 Awards Compendium. The abstracts for all of our 53 newly funded grants as well as the 667 previous awards can be found on our website (www.CaBreastCancer.org) under the Research Portfolio link.

Special Recognition Grants

The CBCRP’s Faith Fancher Research Award is named in memory of a long-time television news anchor and personality with KTVU (Oakland) who waged a very public battle against breast cancer. Faith also was the founding member of the CBCRP Executive Team, which helps expand our Program’s community presence outside the scope of our funded researchers. Faith passed away in October 2003 after a six-year struggle with breast cancer. The recipient of the 2006 Faith Fancher Research Award is Irene Yen, Ph.D., at the University of California, San Francisco, for her study, “Neighborhood Environment and Obesity in Pre-adolescent Girls.” Dr. Yen is studying the impact of city planning policies and neighborhood conditions and services on girls’ eating and exercise habits. Obesity is a significant risk factor for breast cancer, and childhood obesity may lead to early puberty, which is an additional breast cancer risk.

The CBCRP thanks the thousands of Californians who donated to us though our voluntary state income tax check-off campaign. Seven grants were selected to be supported by these funds:

Southeast Asian Breast Health Navigation
Mary Anne Foo M.P.H., CHES and
Marjorie Kagawa-Singer, Ph.D., R.N., M.N.
Orange County Asian and Pacific
Islander Community Alliance and University of California, Los Angeles

Addressing Cultural and Tribal Issues in Breast Cancer
Linda Navarro and Marlene von Friederichs-Fitzwater, Ph.D.
Turtle Health Foundation and University of California, Davis

Telephone-based Decision Support for Rural Patients
Sara O’Donnell and Jeff Belkora, Ph.D.
Mendocino Cancer Resource Center and University of California, San Francisco

Identification of Metastasis Competent Breast Cancer Cells
Barbara Mueller, Ph.D.
La Jolla Institute for Molecular Medicine

A Novel Biological Framework for the Role of Xenoestrogens
Shanaz Dairkee, Ph.D.
California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute

Breast Cancer Metastasis: A Heritable Trait?
Alice Wittemore, Ph.D.
Stanford University

The Role Chk1 in Breast Cancer DNA Damage Repair
Jennifer Scorah, Ph.D.
The Scripps Research Institute

We congratulate all of our newly funded investigators and look forward to the contributions that their research will make to the fight against breast cancer.