Comba Secures V Foundation Award and Grant Funding through Support from the O’Neal Cancer Center

One of the benefits of conducting research at a comprehensive cancer center is access to resources that can help secure funding for innovative and promising projects. Andrea Comba, Ph.D., an associate scientist at the UAB O’Neal Cancer and an assistant professor in the Department of Pathology, Division of Neuropathology, can vouch for the quality of such support networks personally. Through the support of her colleagues at the O’Neal Cancer Center, Comba recently secured the V Foundation’s V Scholar Award for her project, “Dissecting the Tumor-Brain Astrocyte Paracrine Crosstalk to Overcome Glioblastoma Progression.”

Comba’s project focuses on identifying markers that drive glioblastoma, the most aggressive primary brain tumor. With this project, Comba hopes to uncover more efficient means of identifying glioblastomas for treatment and to better understand the mechanisms underpinning the disease.

“Glioblastomas don’t currently have a treatment, so we are investigating the molecular and cellular mechanisms that drive these tumors to develop more effective therapies” says Comba. Her project focuses on recognizing the relationship between glioblastomas and their surrounding microenvironment in the brain – specifically, brain resident astrocytes.

“Astrocytes are essential brain cells that play a critical role in maintaining normal brain function.” Comba explains. “However, these cells are very reactive, which means they can change their function when there is a pathological context.”

When astrocytes interact with glioblastoma, they become reactive and lose their normal functions; worse, they begin to help tumors grow and make the cancer worse, invading other parts of the brain like a radio tower broadcasting the cancer outwards.

“It’s like trying to understand the communication between different people in a room,” Comba explains. “Tumors do not grow alone; they constantly communicate with the surrounding brain cells. The goal of this project is to understand how this interaction between tumor cells and astrocytes is happening to redirect astrocytes back to normal functions once again, restoring the regular conditions of the brain instead of helping the tumor.”

Through support from the O’Neal Cancer Center, Comba was able to secure funding from the V Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 1993 by ESPN and the late Jim Valvano, North Carolina State University basketball coach and ESPN commentator. The V Foundation specializes in providing financial support for promising cancer research; in particular, the V Scholar Award is a four-year grant aimed at supporting tenure-track faculty working on laboratory-based fundamental research or translational research.

“Dr. Comba’s recognition by the V Foundation not only acknowledges the outstanding research at the O’Neal Cancer Center but also highlights opportunities for members to pursue funding outside the federal government,” says Natalie Gassman, Ph.D. Gassman is the Associate Director for Faculty Advancement at the O’Neal Cancer Center, and she works to help scientists like Comba secure funding.

“To address the increasingly competitive funding landscape, the O’Neal Cancer Center is leveraging the expertise of its members, who serve as reviewers and advisory board members for foundations and other interest groups that fund cancer research” Gassman continues. “We are offering several opportunities for members to receive assistance and support with their grant applications, from mentor matching to grant review.”

Thanks to the support from her colleagues in securing the V Scholar Award, Comba can push her promising work on glioblastoma forwards.

“I think having strong institutional support and access to these kinds of resources is incredibly important when applying for grants,” she says. “UAB is a very supportive, collaborative environment where people are willing to mentor you, teach you in grant writing, and help strengthen research proposals. Foundation grants like this are especially valuable because they provide critical early funding to build a research program and generate the preliminary data needed to compete for larger grants in the future.”

The O’Neal Cancer Center can provide help with mentoring resource and critiques for other faculty seeking help aid with securing foundation grants. For more information, interested parties should contact Natalie Gassman, Ph.D., at ngassman@uabmc.edu.