A $1.2 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to California State University, Fresno’s Biology Department will fund a new program to research the correlation between pesticides and breast cancer among Latina farm workers.
The grant creates the Cancer Biology Program, in collaboration with the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research in La Jolla.
The new Cancer Biology Program also will strive for a better understanding of pancreatic cancer’s low survival rate, said Dr. Jason Bush, co-principal investigator of Research Infrastructure for Minority Institution, an on-campus biomedical research resources laboratory.
The three-year grant, one of the largest biomedical grants Fresno State has received, will give minority students at Fresno State an opportunity to spend a summer at the San Diego-area research institute, where they will become more familiar with biomedical research.
“The grant will be a catalyst for cancer research in the Central Valley,” Bush said. “It will offer underrepresented students the opportunity to more easily transition to biomedical research careers.”
The new biology program will begin recruiting students to attend the summer program in San Diego throughout the spring 2011 semester.
For more information contact Jason A. Bush at jbush@csufresno.edu or 559.278.2068.
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