Researchers at the University of Iowa Holden of Pediatrics and the UI Children’s Hospital, Comprehensive Cancer Center have received the first-ever Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant to study neuroendocrine tumors. SPORE grants are funded through the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health.

The five-year, $10.67 million grant is the only SPORE grant funding research on neuroendocrine tumors.

Sue O’Dorisio, professor of pediatrics in the Stead Family Department is the principal investigator on the SPORE grant.

The four major projects of the SPORE explore the genetics of these tumors, their molecular makeup, and how this information can be used to develop new approaches to diagnosis and treatment. Researchers at Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center are playing significant roles in the new highly collaborative NET SPORE and come from the departments of pediatrics, internal medicine, surgery, radiology, pharmacology, pathology, radiation oncology, epidemiology, biostatistics, chemistry, and biomedical engineering. In addition to O’Dorisio, other UI SPORE investigators include Thomas O’Dorisio, Yusuf Menda, Molly Martin, Dawn Quelle, Benjamin Darbro, Terry Braun, James Howe, Andrew Bellizzi, Michael Schultz, David Bushnell, Mark Madsen, Christopher Pigge, Michael Knudson, Chuck Lynch, Joseph Dillon, Douglas Spitz, Daniel Vaena, and Gideon Zamba.