Black Medical School-Led Team Wins Cancer Research Grand Award

ATLANTA

Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) recently announced a $25 million award from the Cancer Grand Challenges Award will address cancer disparities in populations of African ancestry.

As such an award-winning research global team led by Melissa B. Davis, PhD of MSM becomes  the only winning team in the U.S. led by an African-American woman and the first Cancer Grand Challenges award to focus on cancer inequities. Cancer Grand Challenges awards proposals that address some of cancer’s toughest challenges.

The grant to Team SAMBAI, led by Dr. Davis, director of the MSM Institute of Translational Genomic Medicine, is funded by Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute, through Cancer Grand Challenges.

Called Team SAMBAI (Societal, Ancestry, Molecular and Biological Analyses of Inequalities), Dr. Davis’ interdisciplinary research group comes from the United States, Ghana, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. The award not only marks the first one to focus on health disparities and to be led by an African-American woman, but it is also the first one awarded to a researcher at a Historically Black Medical School and is the first one given to a host institution in MSM’s home state of Georgia.

“We are so incredibly proud of Dr. Davis’ leadership in directing the effort to create a truly historic and precedent setting winning proposal to Cancer Grand Challenges that holds the potential to have a tremendous impact on how we treat cancer for people with African ancestry,” said MSM President and CEO Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice.

“For nearly 50 years, the driving mission of Morehouse School of Medicine has been to address health inequities for communities of color, and we are honored to have the unique opportunity to carry that mission forward in partnership with Cancer Grand Challenges.”

“I want to extend my appreciation to Cancer Research UK, the National Cancer Institute, Cancer Grand Challenges, my Team SAMBAI colleagues around the world, and my Morehouse School of Medicine family on being selected one of five world-class global research teams to win this award,” said Dr. Davis. “We are looking forward to engaging into what we hope will be groundbreaking research that will shift the paradigm for cancer inequity amongst people of African descent and hopefully helping to save lives in the future.”

SAMBAI Members are Melissa Davis, Team Lead, Morehouse School of Medicine, United States; Yaw Bediako, Yemaachi Biotech, Ghana; Tiffany Carson, Moffitt Cancer Center, United States; Isidro Cortes Ciriano, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, United Kingdom; Zodwa Dlamini, University of Pretoria, South Africa; Olivier Elemento, Cornell University, United States; Rick Fairley, TOUCH, The Black Breast Cancer Alliance, United States; Fieke Froeling, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom; Marcin Imielinski, New York University, United States; Sheeba Irshad, King’s College London, United Kingdom; Lauren McCullough, Emory University, United States; Gary Miller, Columbia University, United States; Nigel Mongan, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom; Nicolas Robine, New York Genome Center, United States; and , Clayton Yates, John Hopkins University, United States.

The Team SAMBAI proposal integrates social determinants of health, environmental exposures, genetic contributions, and tumor biology to understand the complex interactions between genetics, environment, and social factors in cancer outcomes. The proposal also highlights the importance of patient partnership, advocacy, and support in addressing cancer disparities.

The proposal also focuses on breast cancer, particularly among Black women. While Black women have a slightly lower incidence rate of breast cancer compared to White women, they are more frequently diagnosed with advanced disease and have a higher incidence of aggressive forms of breast cancer, such as estrogen receptor (ER) negative (TRIPLE NEGATIVE) disease. This contributes to racial disparities in breast cancer outcomes.

“Together with our network of visionary partners and research leaders, Cancer Grand Challenges unites the world’s brightest minds across boundaries and disciplines and aims to overcome cancer’s toughest problems,” said Dr. David Scott, Director of Cancer Grand Challenges.

“With this investment, our largest to date, we continue to grow our global research community, and fund new teams that have the potential to surface discoveries that could positively impact cancer outcomes.”

For more information on Team SAMBAI, its members and their approach to tackling the cancer inequities challenge, visit https://cancergrandchallenges.org/.

Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM), founded in 1975, is an independent and private historically-Black medical school in Atlanta, Georgia. Originally a part of Morehouse College, it is among the nation’s leading educators of primary care physicians, biomedical scientists, and public health professionals. MSM was recognized by the Annals of Internal Medicine as the nation’s number one medical school in fulfilling a social mission – leading the creation and advancement of health equity to achieve health justice.

To learn more about programs and donate today, please visit www.msm.edu or call (404) 752-1500.

About Cancer Grand Challenges

Co-founded in 2020 by two of the largest funders of cancer research in the world: Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute in the US, Cancer Grand Challenges supports a global community of world-class, interdisciplinary teams to come together, think differently and take on some of cancer’s toughest challenges.