Yi Guo, Ph.D., received a $392,115 NCI R21 grant for his study titled “Using Electronic Health Records from a Large Clinical Data Research Network to Understand Cancer Burden and Cancer Risks Among Transgender and Gender Nonconforming (TGNC) Individuals.”

Thomas George, Jr, M.D., FACP, and Merry Jennifer Markham, M.D., FACP, FASCO, were named two of ASCO’s 2019 Advocacy Champions.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology Nominating Committee has selected Merry Jennifer Markham, M.D., FACP, FASCO, as one of 12 distinguished ASCO members for open leadership positions within the Society.

Eligible members can vote for their chosen leaders and on the proposed bylaws amendments beginning Nov. 5. Election results will be announced in mid-December.

Raymond Mailhot, M.D., M.P.H., received a $50,000 grant from the American Society of Clinical Oncology for his study titled “Assessing pediatric radiotherapy services and capacity in Mexico.”

Versie Johnson-Mallard, Ph.D., ARNP, FAAN, a professor in the department of infectious diseases and immunology, has received the 2020 Distinguished Veterinary Microbiologist Award from the American College of Veterinary Microbiologists, a national organization that provides certification of veterinarians with special expertise in microbiology.

Weizhou Zhang, Ph.D., has received a three year, $750,000 grant from the Department of Defense for his study titled “Developing a novel PROTAC-based NR4A1 degrader for breast-cancer therapy.”

Daohong Zhou, M.D., is now a co-investigator/subaward principal investigator of the Intercollaborative Radiation Countermeasure (INTERACT) Consortium for Advanced Development of Medical Countermeasures to Mitigate/Treat Acute and Delayed Radiation Syndromes. The goal of this project is to develop radiation mitigators and treatments for radiation-induced acute and delayed effects.

Dr. Zhou was a co-organizer and invited speaker at the NCI workshop on Radiation, Senescence and Cancer on Aug. 10-11. He was also invited to present at the PROTACs and Targeted Protein Degradation virtual meeting on Sept. 18.

Daiqing Liao, Ph.D., has received a $626,708 grant for his study titled “Molecular mechanisms and pharmacologic targeting of lipogenesis in breast cancer.”

David Bloom, Ph.D., received a $604,005 R01 grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for his study “Effects of HSV-1 infection on neural progenitor cell biology in vitro and in vivo.” He also received a $33,889 grant from Virogin Biotech Canada for his study titled “Assessment of Reactivation of HSV Oncolytic Vectors.”

Dr. Bloom was also elected as Chair-Elect of the University of Florida Faculty Senate.

Rolf Renne, Ph.D., was awarded the 2020 College of Medicine Basic Science Research Award.

Lizi Wu, Ph.D., was promoted to professor in the UF College of Medicine’s Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology.

Scott Tibbetts, Ph.D., was promoted to professor in the UF College of Medicine’s Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology.

Steven Swarts, Ph.D., was elected by the Radiation Research Society as Councilor-Chemistry on September 10, 2020.

Akash Parekh, M.D., received the Resident Seed Grant from the American College of Radiation Oncology.

Mai Tanaka, mentored by Dietmar Siemann, Ph.D., published a review article entitled “Gas6/Axl Signaling Pathway in the Tumor Immune Microenvironment” in Cancers Special Issue Mechanisms of Tumor Immune.

Daniel Stribling, mentored by Rolf Renne, Ph.D., received a UFII Graduate Student Fellowship, “Enabling miRNA Discovery through a Novel Hybrid Sequence Analysis Method for High-Throughput Ribonomics Datasets.”