Dr. Hector Franco, Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics and Member, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center received a Career Catalyst Award from the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
This three-year award is titled “Crosstalk between estrogen and inflammatory signaling in metastatic breast cancer” and studies will focus on understanding how inflammation leads to metastasis in ER+ breast tumors by measuring the transcriptional changes and chromatin binding profiles of ER and NFkB in response to estrogen and proinflammatory cytokines in primary tumors and matched metastatic sites; and, determine the impact of proinflammatory cytokines on tamoxifen sensitivity and the development of metastasis. He was also awarded a Scholar Grant from the V Foundation for Cancer Research for a study titled “Mining transcriptional enhancers to identify regulatory addictions in ovarian cancer”, enabling his lab to diversify the research portfolio and pursue mechanisms of gene expression in both breast and ovarian cancer.
Hector and his lab were also featured in a recent WRAL news story and recognized for their work in breast cancer research.