Funding covers five cancer-research projects underway

More than $1 million in grants has been approved for five cancer-research projects being conducted at The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota.

Three of the grants will involve studies related to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer. The others will perform research related to pancreatic cancer, which has a high mortality rate, and other human cancers, including bladder cancer.
Funding periods vary for the grants, which total about $1.3 million overall, but run through 2011 and 2012.

Dr. Mohammad Saleem Bhat (molecular chemoprevention and therapeutics), Dr. PeiWen Fei (tumor suppressors and cancer susceptibility) and Dr. Junxuan Lu (cancer biology) – all section leaders at The Hormel Institute – are the principal investigators who applied for the funding. Bhat is overseeing three of the grants.

The National Institutes of Health, part of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, is funding three grants. The other two received financial support from the U.S. Department of Defense and the American Institute for Cancer Research.

The Hormel Institute is a world-renowned cancer research center, specializing in research leading to cancer prevention and control. The Hormel Foundation’s 2006-2008 Expansion Project tripled the research facility’s size and more than doubled its faculty and staff.