The international research team will spend five years and up to $25 million studying DNA damage linked to cancer to inform improved prevention and treatment.
University of Minnesota School of Public Health (SPH) Professor Silvia Balbo has been named a co-investigator on a newly-funded research team supported by Cancer Grand Challenges, a leading global research initiative that tackles the toughest challenges in cancer research.
Balbo, who is also a co-leader of the Carcinogenic and Chemoprevention Program at the UMN Masonic Cancer Center, is a key part of the Cancer Grand Challenges CAUSE team, which will receive up to $25 million over five years to study the biological mechanisms behind mutational signatures—distinct patterns of DNA damage linked to cancer. The team, led by Ludmil Alexandrov at the University of California San Diego, will investigate how these signatures arise, including from internal body processes, environmental exposures, and chemotherapy-related damage, to inform cancer prevention and treatment.
Founded in 2020 by the two largest funders of cancer research in the world—Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute in the U.S.—Cancer Grand Challenges empowers a global community of interdisciplinary research teams to come together to conduct world-class cancer research.
