Colin P. Kenny, PhD, assistant professor in the University of Iowa Department of Surgery, has been awarded a highly competitive National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 grant from the National Cancer Institute to support research focused on understanding how melanoma adapts and progresses.

The five-year project, Investigation of TFE3 and TFAP2B as critical regulators of melanoma cell plasticity, will examine biological mechanisms that allow melanoma cells to change and adapt in ways that contribute to disease progression and treatment resistance.

The NIH R01 is considered the gold standard of investigator-initiated research funding and is among the most prestigious and competitive awards available to biomedical researchers. Securing an R01 is a major career milestone and represents a significant achievement for Kenny and the growing research efforts of the Kenny Lab.

"This award is an incredible milestone for our lab and a tremendous vote of confidence in the questions we're pursuing," Kenny said. "Melanoma is a remarkably adaptable cancer, and we're interested in understanding the mechanisms that allow tumor cells to change and survive. With support from the NIH, we'll be able to explore these processes in greater depth and identify new opportunities for therapeutic intervention."

Melanoma remains one of the most aggressive forms of skin cancer, and researchers continue to seek new ways to understand how tumor cells evolve and evade treatment. Kenny's research will focus on the roles of TFE3 and TFAP2B, two factors believed to play important roles in regulating melanoma cell plasticity.

"Our goal is to uncover the fundamental biology that drives melanoma progression and treatment resistance," Kenny said. "The better we understand how these cells adapt, the better positioned we are to develop strategies that can improve outcomes for patients facing this disease."

Kenny credited the collaborative research environment at Iowa for helping make the award possible.

"Research is a team effort," Kenny said. "I'm grateful to my colleagues, collaborators, trainees, and mentors whose contributions helped bring this project to this point. The University of Iowa provides an outstanding environment for discovery, and I'm excited about what we'll be able to accomplish together over the next several years."

Kenny's award further strengthens the Department of Surgery's research portfolio and reflects the department's commitment to advancing discoveries that improve patient care through innovative science.