USF Nursing’s Dr. Wang receives collaborative grant from USF Women’s Health

University of South Florida College of Nursing Assistant Professor, Hsiao-Lan Wang, PhD, RN, CMSRN, HFS, is collaborating with USF College of Pharmacy’s Assistant Professor, Feng Cheng, PhD, to conduct a research study on early detection of Ovarian Cancer based on a grant issued from USF Women’s Health.

The grant is issued to Dr. Cheng to conduct the research study titled “identification of human serum miRNAs for the early detection of ovarian cancer,” which will provide the evaluation of miRNA biomarkers for the noninvasive detection of ovarian cancer at an early stage to pave the way for new ovarian cancer detection kits. USF College of Medicine Professor, Patricia Kruk, PhD, is also a co-investigator on the grant.

“I think that this is a very good opportunity for Dr. Cheng and I work together, even though we come from two different fields,” Dr. Wang said. “In order to be successful to secure funding, we need to have a multi-disciplinary team, so everyone can bring their specialty to the table to develop a project that can be translated to the practice. It’s not a one-person’s research anymore.”

During this research, Dr. Wang will help facilitate the study’s sample selection process, help understand demographics, and identify relevant clinical variables in the tissue bank. Dr. Wang’s previous research has been focused on multidisciplinary and translational approaches to manage symptoms and improve quality of life for cancer survivors.

USF Women’s Health grant is awarded to multiple researchers to encourage collaboration between investigators across colleges. The investigators received a total amount $8,740 for two years to pay for blood samples for the study as well as pay for a student assistant.

For related stories on Dr. Wang click here.