Susan G. Komen Foundation

Mia Levy, M.D., Ph.D., Ingram Assistant Professor of Cancer Research and director of Cancer Health Informatics and Strategy at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC), has been named a Komen Scholar by the Susan G. Komen organization.

Justin Balko, Pharm.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of Medicine and Cancer Biology, has been named a member of the 2016 class of Pink Tie Guys by the Greater Nashville Affiliate of Susan G. Komen, a nonprofit organization dedicated to breast cancer research and patient support.

For more than twenty years, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center’s (VICC) primary source of outside funding has been provided by the National Institutes of Health. But in breast cancer, Susan G. Komen, a nonprofit dedicated to breast cancer research and community services, has been a significant sponsor of research and patient care support.

Two Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) investigators — Jennifer Pietenpol, Ph.D., B.F. Byrd Jr. Professor of Oncology and director of VICC, and Valerie Jansen, M.D., Ph.D., medical oncology fellow — have received new cancer research grants awarded by Susan G. Komen, the world’s largest nonprofit funder of breast cancer research.

Nearly 25 percent of all breast cancers among premenopausal women occur within two to five years following a pregnancy.

The grants, which total $830,000, are part of the non-profit organization’s commitment to young scientists, as well as established investigators who are searching for more effective breast cancer therapies.

Two Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center investigators have received multi-year breast cancer research grants from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Breast Cancer Foundation.