Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Assistant Professor Lingbo Zhang has received the National Cancer Institute (NCI) MERIT Award. NCI is a division of the National Institutes of Health. Short for Method to Extend Research in Time, the MERIT Award provides early-career scientists a source of stable, long-term funding.
Zhang is a member of the CSHL Cancer Center. His lab studies how diets and other environmental factors influence cancer development. Recently, he has investigated how tumors feed off certain nutrients in the body. His research revealed leukemia’s appetite for vitamin B6.
“I am humbled and honored to receive this award,” Zhang says. “With this award, we can identify selective nutritional pathways and actionable drug targets. This combination can help us understand communications between cancer and its microenvironment, and develop potential new therapeutic strategies for blood cancers.”
The MERIT Award provides Zhang up to seven years of grant support. Unlike conventional grants, the MERIT Award doesn’t allow for applications. Researchers must be nominated. Past recipients of this prestigious honor include CSHL Professor Adrian Krainer.
“I congratulate Lingbo Zhang for receiving the MERIT Award,” CSHL President and CEO Bruce Stillman says. “Lingbo’s research on the cancer microenvironment is a key component of CSHL’s whole-body physiology initiative. The NCI is right to recognize the great potential of his work, just as we do.”
Written by: Samuel Diamond, Editorial Content Manager | diamond@cshl.edu | 516-367-5055