T32 CPCTP Co-Director

Ritu Aneja, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Clinical and Diagnostic Sciences and Associate Dean for Research and Innovation in the School of Health Professions. She is a basic and translational scientist who conducts a broad spectrum of research in the areas of breast cancer health disparities, diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive biomarkers, and novel chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic strategies, using integrative multi-omic and machine-learning based approaches. Her lab is investigating the socio-biological mechanisms of breast cancer disparities and has been continuously funded since 2007 through K99/R00, U01, R01, R03, and STTR grants from the NIH, as well as other agencies such as the DoD and non-profit foundations, for cancer and racial disparities research. The breadth of her research experiences is well suited for the diverse nature of the CPCTP.

The goal of her research is to understand why survival and treatment outcomes differ between White and Black women, with a focus on triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), an aggressive subtype that disproportionately affects Black women. Her convergence research has led her to assemble teams of researchers and clinicians from multiple life science, clinical science, and social science disciplines to collaboratively address complex medical challenges that are deeply entwined with social structures and existing health inequalities. In this context, Dr. Aneja recognized the imperative need for a global approach to address cancer disparities and founded the International Consortium for Advancing Research on Triple Negative Breast Cancer (ICART) in 2016. ICART is a global platform of research groups from 10 countries across four continents, with the mission of aggregating complementary expertise and resources globally, to advance knowledge on TNBC and reduce breast cancer-related disparities. Today, ICART includes more than 30 hospitals and institutions, including a network of 15 teaching hospitals across Nigeria and Ghana and has so far enabled 9 multi-institutional studies and trained 15 graduate students and 8 junior investigators across the globe, resulting in more than 30 publications.

T32 CPCTP Co-Director

Ellen M. Lavoie Smith, PhD, MSN, RN, AOCN®, FAAN, is a Professor, Assistant Dean for Research and Scholarship, and the Marie O’Koren Endowed Chair at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Nursing. Dr. Smith is uniquely qualified to co-lead the UAB Cancer Prevention and Control T32 program because she (1) has a deep oncology clinical background, (2) is an experienced cancer control researcher who has secured funding from diverse sources (NIH, Foundation, Industry), (3) has sustained ties to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Cooperative Research Group Network as a leader and lead investigator of multi-site NCI-funded trials, and (4) has a strong track-record for supporting pre- and post-doctoral trainees. Her research is well recognized as pioneering and pivotal in identifying interventions for chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN). Her research revealed duloxetine efficacy for painful CIPN (JAMA, 2013). As a result, duloxetine remains the only treatment for painful CIPN recommended by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (JCO, 2020). Further, she has led multiple instrument development studies involving both adults and children with CIPN. She currently leads an NCI R01-funded Phase II-III trial to test duloxetine to prevent CIPN through the Alliance Cancer Cooperative Research Group network. Dr. Smith has a robust publication track record and has lectured nationally and internationally regarding multiple cancer-related topics. She has mentored numerous advisees (high school students, undergraduate and graduate students, pre- and post-doctoral fellows, faculty, clinicians), and has co-authored many peer-reviewed papers, abstracts, and book chapters involving her mentees. Her pre-and post-doctoral trainees have secured prestigious faculty positions at research-intensive universities. As recognition for her pioneering work, Dr. Smith has received numerous national awards including the 2018 Fellows of the National Institute of Nursing Research Welch/Woerner Path Paver Award.

NTR 728 Course Director

Associate Professor, Nutrition Sciences, School of Health Professions
Scientist, Cancer Control and Population Sciences, O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center
Scientist, O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, Heersink School of Medicine
Scientist, Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NORC), Nutrition Sciences Research
Scientist, Comprehensive Diabetes Center, Heersink School of Medicine

Dr. Norian is an immunologist with years of experience in studying the biology of immune responses to a variety of solid tumors, in both the presence and absence of immunotherapy. Her research focuses on several key areas: 1) identifying the effects of diet and obesity on immune responses to solid tumors, 2) defining tumor-induced mechanisms of myeloid cell immune dysfunction, and 3) developing novel combinatorial immunotherapies to overcome tumor-induced suppression and enhance protective immunity.