2025 NCI Director’s Intramural Innovation Awards
, by Elise Tookmanian, Ph.D.
From left to right: Maya Spaur, Thong Luong, Batel Blechter, and Tongwu Zhang.
The NCI Director’s Intramural Innovation Award Program is designed to support development of highly innovative approaches and technology aimed at significant cancer–related problems. Winning proposals showed potential for significant scientific or public health impact, as well as approach, innovation, and programmatic relevance to the mission of the Division. Recipients will use their awards in fiscal year 2025.
Principal Investigator Award Winner
Tongwu Zhang, Ph.D. - “Deciphering the landscape and evolutionary impact of LINE-1 retrotransposition in upper gastrointestinal cancers”
Career Development Award Winners
Batel Blechter, Ph.D., M.A. - “The effects of occupational exposure to electronic waste on epigenetic age acceleration: A study in Accra, Ghana”
Thong Luong, Ph.D. - “Establishing a cell-based model system to functionally characterize lung cancer GWAS variants”
Maya Spaur, Ph.D., Sc.M. - “Investigating the impact of drinking water exposures on the oral microbiome in U.S. populations”