McTiernan, Guenthoer awarded Komen grants for breast cancer research

Drs. Anne McTiernan and Jamie Guenthoer recently garnered grants from Susan G. Komen for the Cure, part of the organization's $58 million in new research funding for 2012.

McTiernan, a researcher in the Public Health Sciences Division and director of the Prevention Center, earned a $250,000 scholar grant to continue investigating the incremental effect of vitamin D supplementation in overweight and obese postmenopausal women with low blood vitamin D levels on response to a weight loss (diet + exercise) intervention. The proposed research will provide important information about vitamin D insufficiency and weight, two potentially modifiable risk factors for breast cancer.

Komen awarded $180,000 to the Tewari Lab's Dr. Jamie Guenthoer in the Human Biology Division to develop a biomarker blood test that, with mammography, could detect cancer and identify aggressive disease very early.

The newly announced awards include 154 grants to researchers in 22 states and seven countries. The organization currently funds more than 500 active research grants around the world. Komen is the largest nonprofit funder of breast cancer research outside of the U.S. government.

[Adapted from a Komen for the Cure news release]