Two Georgia Institute of Technology faculty members have received 2011 Cancer Research Awards.

Ali Adibi, professor of optics and photonics in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Elizabeth Mynatt, professor and associate dean of the College of Computing, have been selected by the Georgia Cancer Coalition to be among the 12 award recipients.

Thanks to citizens’ voluntary donations to the Georgia Cancer Research Fund on state income tax forms, Adibi will receive $50,000 seed funding for the study of label-free prostate cancer biomarkers with applications for the detection and treatment of prostate cancer.

Mynatt’s grant will support a collaborative effort among Georgia Tech, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the Georgia Department of Community Health, Morehouse School of Medicine and IBM to develop a distributed model of the pediatrics system in Georgia. The goal is to better understand how care processes, information and resources flow through the system.

Georgia Tech is also collaborating on two additional Cancer Research Awards.

Dr. Christopher R. Flowers, an assistant professor of hematology/medical oncology at Emory University and an adjunct assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, will use the funds to enhance the Metropolitan Atlanta cancer registry.

The other collaborative award went to Shafiq Khan, professor of biological sciences at Clark Atlanta University, where the Collaborative Center for Cancer Genomics operates in cooperation with Georgia Tech and St. Joseph’s Hospital of Atlanta.

The Georgia Cancer Coalition received more than 70 proposals from researchers across the state. Each award is matched by the awardee’s organizations. Cancer Research Awards often provide seed money for pilot studies that have the potential of attracting larger, more prestigious national grant awards. 

"These research awards are an important investment in our state’s scientists," said Bill Todd, president and chief executive officer of the Georgia Cancer Coalition. “With matching funds and potential for additional national funding, we are making a major contribution to cancer research in the state. We owe the program’s success to our citizens who support the drive to eradicate cancer.”