Congratulations to Philip Spanheimer, MD, for receiving the very competitive and prestigious National Cancer Institute’s K08 career development grant which will support 5 years of funding for his research “Repurposing RET Inhibitors for Endocrine Resistant Breast Cancer”. “We have the unique opportunity to bridge laboratory studies and patient care” said Spanheimer as his study explores … Read more

The UNC Department of Surgery is pleased to announce that the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has awarded Dr. Adam W. Akerman, PhD, an R01 grant and a 4-year funding period for his study entitled: “Enhanced Biochemical Monitoring for Aortic Aneurysm Disease.” Dr. Akerman and his team—which includes Drs. John Ikonomidis and Chris Agala … Read more

The Department of Surgery is pleased to congratulate Adesola Akinkuotu, MD, MPH, named a University of North Carolina Simmons Scholar. Dr. Akinkuotu is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Pediatric Surgery. Her specialties include minimally invasive surgery, thoracic surgery, congenital anomalies, and prenatal counseling. As a Simmons Scholar, Dr. Akinkuotu will be eligible to … Read more

The National Cancer Institute has awarded leading Principal Investigator Dr. Jen Jen Yeh a five-year, $10.9 million Pancreatic Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant intended to further enhance treatment solutions for pancreatic cancer by focusing on key challenges to identifying, producing and directing new therapies.

The Lustgarten Foundation has awarded its inaugural Lustgarten Equity, Accessibility, and Diversity (LEAD) Project grant to Jen Jen Yeh, MD, in support of her PROmoting CLinicAl TrIal EngageMent for Pancreatic Cancer App Study (PROCLAIM Study).

Congratulations to John Ikonomidis, MD, PhD, Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery on his NIH R56 award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for “Device-Based Pathway Intervention: Mechanistic Study of Cellular Localization of Proteolytic Enzymes in Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm Disease”. 

Dr. Jen Jen Yeh, in collaboration with Drs. Naim Rashid (UNC Biostatistis) and Susan Tsai (Medical College of Wisconsin) received a $4,616,009 NIH U01 award for the period 9/1/2022 – 8/31/2027 from the National Cancer Institute for the project entitled, “Integrating tumor and stroma to understand and predict treatment response”.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Gita Mody for receiving a K23 grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute for her project entitled “Improving Thoracic Surgical Care using electronic Patient-Reported Outcomes (ePROs)”. The grant is from 1/1/2022-12/31/2026 for a total of $1,010,785.