Morehouse School of Medicine awarded $25 million cancer grant; a first for Black medical schools

Melanie McCrea
·2 min read

The Morehouse School of Medicine has won big after being awarded a $25 million grant to address cancer disparities.

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On Wednesday, The Morehouse School of Medicine announced that Team SAMBAI (Societal, Ancestry, Molecular and Biological Analyses of Inequalities), a global team, was awarded a $25 million grant by Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute.

Co-founded in 2020, the Cancer Grand Challenges was created to take on some of cancer’s toughest challenges.

The grant is to help address cancer disparities in populations of African ancestry.

Morehouse School of Medicine has become the first historically Black medical school and the first school in Georgia to receive this award.

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The 15-member winning team is the only one in the U.S. led by an African-American woman, Dr. Melissa Davis.

Davis leads the interdisciplinary research group from the U.S., Ghana, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

“We are so incredibly proud of Dr. Davis’ leadership in directing the effort to create a truly historic and precedent-setting winning proposal to Cancer Grand Challenges that holds the potential to have a tremendous impact on how we treat cancer for people with African ancestry,” said MSM President and CEO Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice.

The team members include:

  • Melissa Davis, Team Lead, Morehouse School of Medicine, United States

  • Yaw Bediako, Yemaachi Biotech, Ghana

  • Tiffany Carson, Moffitt Cancer Center, United States

  • Isidro Cortes Ciriano, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, United Kingdom

  • Zodwa Dlamini, University of Pretoria, South Africa

  • Olivier Elemento, Cornell University, United States

  • Rick Fairley, TOUCH, The Black Breast Cancer Alliance, United States

  • Fieke Froeling, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom

  • Marcin Imielinski, New York University, United States

  • Sheeba Irshad, King’s College London, United Kingdom

  • Lauren McCullough, Emory University, United States

  • Gary Miller, Columbia University, United States

  • Nigel Mongan, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom

  • Nicolas Robine, New York Genome Center, United States

  • Clayton Yates, John Hopkins University, United States

Officials said the team’s proposal combines social drivers of health, environmental exposures, genetic contributions and tumor biology to understand the complex interactions between genetics, environment, and social factors in cancer outcomes. The proposal also highlights the importance of patient partnership, advocacy and support in addressing cancer disparities. The proposal spotlights breast cancer among Black women.

“With this investment, our largest to date, we continue to grow our global research community, and fund new teams that have the potential to surface discoveries that could positively impact cancer outcomes,” said Dr. David Scott, Director of Cancer Grand Challenges.

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