O’Neal Cancer Center Announces Recipients of the O’Neal Invests Spring 2026 Cycle, Including Grants Funded by the BCRFA and Children’s of Alabama Hope Fund

The UAB O’Neal Cancer Center is pleased to announce the latest O’Neal Invests grant awards. In this cycle, three grants received the award, including two funded by the BCRFA and by the Children’s of Alabama Hope Fund, respectively:

• Lewis Shi, M.D., Ph.D., of the UAB Department of Radiation Oncology received an O’Neal Invests pre-R01 grant for his project, “Overcoming Metabolic and Functional Defects in Bladder Cancer-Infiltrating T Cells.”
• Alexa Mattheyses, Ph.D., of the UAB Department of Cell, Developmental, and Integrative Biology, received an O’Neal Invests catalyst grant for her project, “Sialylation Dependent Changes in Cell-Cell Adhesion Facilitate Metastasis.” Funding for this award was generously provided by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama (BCRFA). The BCRFA is a non-profit organization providing support to breast cancer awareness and research across the state of Alabama.
• Elizabeth Beierle, M.D., of the UAB Department of Surgery, Division of Pediatric Surgery and Jamie Aye, M.D., of the UAB Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology and Oncology, received an O’Neal Invests catalyst grant for their project, “PP2A as a Treatment Strategy in Fusion Positive Rhabdomyosarcoma.” Funding for this project was graciously provided by the Children’s of Alabama Hope Fund. The Children’s of Alabama Hope Fund was established by the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Pediatric Cancer Research Center of Alabama with the goal of promoting research in the field of pediatric medicine.

O’Neal Invests grants fund UAB investigators initiating new cancer-related projects to do key preliminary work to enable competitive extramural applications. Applications for the eleventh grant cycle were submitted in Spring 2026.

There are two O’Neal Invests RFAs per year, in the spring and fall. O’Neal Cancer Center membership is not a requirement to apply, but awardees must become members. The grants are peer-reviewed by a panel of UAB faculty.

To learn more about the O’Neal Invests awards program, visit our website at https://www.onealcanceruab.org/giving/oneal-invests/.

More information about this cycle’s sponsors is available online. To learn more about the BCRFA, visit https://www.bcrfa.org/. To learn more about Children’s of Alabama, visit https://www.childrensal.org/.