Ravi Bellamkonda, a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, is one of six researchers selected by the Georgia Cancer Coalition (GCC) as recipients of the 2010 Cancer Research Awards, made possible through voluntary donations to the Georgia Cancer Research Fund on State Income Tax forms.

Bellamkonda will receive a one-year, $50,000 grant to study how to mark brain tumor margins using a dye visible to the naked eye, so as to provide accurate visual cues to the surgeon during surgery.

This is the first year that Cancer Research Awards were made available to study all types of cancer. Legislation passed in 2009 removed prior restrictions to research in the areas of breast, prostate, or ovarian cancer. 

Since the 2000 inception of the State Income Tax Checkoff program, $2.75 million has been raised for cancer research, which is matched by each researcher’s organization. Sixty-one awards have been made possible by these contributions of Georgia’s citizens.