![Featured Image](https://vumc-reporter.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/reporter_110802_8.jpg)
Dr. William M. Grady, assistant professor of Medicine and Cancer Biology, has been named the 42nd Mallinckrodt Scholar by the Edward Mallinckrodt Jr. Foundation in St. Louis.
The honor includes a three-year award of $210,000, which he will use to support his research into how transforming growth factor beta (TGF-b) affects the formation of colon cancer.
“Bill has done a superb job in developing a national visibility for his research program and we are proud of the accomplishment,” said Dr. Eric G. Neilson, Morgan Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine.
Grady is developing novel animal models and cell line systems to study how TGF-b regulates cell growth, programmed cell death and cell motility, as well as how alterations in its signaling affect colon cancer behavior.
Grady also received the the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation/Lilly Clinical Investigator Award earlier this year. The award provides $1 million over five years to support his work to develop a DNA-based test to screen for colorectal cancer.