Monday, August 18, 2025 8/18/2025

Disentangling the effect of Black/African Ancestry from confounding variables on colorectal cancer biology

Award Number: R03CA283359
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 04/08/2024
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 03/31/2026

Group Awards By:

View Award Description

Disentangling the effect of Black/African Ancestry from confounding variables on colorectal cancer biology - SUMMARY There is a higher incidence and mortality of colorectal cancer (CRC) in individuals self-identifying as Black race compared to all other races and ethnicities in the US. Previous studies comparing self-identified Black vs self-identified White CRC frozen samples have detected significant differences in gene expression and indicate that self-identified race is significantly associated with differences in CRC biology. However, the list of DEGs generated independently from each individual study shows limited overlap. This is likely because of the small sample sizes for each dataset, with the largest set being the TCGA data set with ~60 self-identified Black samples. Complex environmental and germline genomic factors contribute to the DEGs and other biological results. However, a major barrier to disentangling these factors is accessing large numbers of CRC tissues annotated for potentially confounding co-variables linked to self-identified racial categories. To conduct such a study we propose to demonstrate the feasibility of assembling a multi-disciplinary research team to analyze a large (>1000) self-identified Black/ African Ancestry (AA) vs. White/European Ancestry (EA) formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue samples archived at Stony Brook University Hospital (SBUH), Kings County Hospital Center (KCHC/NYCH+H) and Henry Ford Hospital (HFH). CXCL10 will be the initial DEG target since this is one of the few DEGs identified by more than one RNA-sequence dataset. CXCL10 is an interferon gamma inducible protein that is a T-cell attractant and has been positively associated with T-cell infiltration in CRC and with post-operative progress free survival. The reduced expression of CXCL10 in self-identified Black CRC vs. White CRC could therefore potentially link self-identified racial differences in CRC immunologic transcriptional profiles and CRC outcomes. Data from the Broad single cell (sc) RNA sequence (seq) data portal revealed that myeloid cells and particularly macrophage cell subtypes are a major source of CXCL10 expression in CRC tumors. However, no information on racial categories was made available for this scRNA dataset. A recent analysis of the TCGA data revealed that macrophage signature transcripts are also reduced in self-identified Black vs. White CRC (10) but it remains to be demonstrated whether macrophage signature transcripts are colocalized with the CXCL10 transcripts in the same cell. In Aim 1, spatial profiling of CXCL10 expression in CRC FFPE sections using RNAScopeTM in situ hybridization will be piloted to evaluate the hypothesis that CXCL10 expressing macrophages are reduced in self-identified Black vs. White CRC. In Aim 2, annotation of CRC FFPE tissues with respect to potentially confounding co-variables, (including estimates of ancestry admixture and mismatch repair- immunohistochemistry results) will be harmonized, with the overarching goal of conducting multivariable analyses of racial effects on CRC cancer biology.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $79,245 )
2025	2025	THE RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK	W5510 FRANKS MELVILLE MEMORIAL LIBRARY	STONY BROOK	NY	11794	SUFFOLK	USA	Cancer Cause and Prevention Research	000	2	3/14/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$79,245
														Subtotal = $79,245

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $94,120 )
2024	2024	THE RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK	W5510 FRANKS MELVILLE MEMORIAL LIBRARY	STONY BROOK	NY	11794	SUFFOLK	USA	Cancer Cause and Prevention Research	001	1	4/9/2024	NEW	$0
2024	2024	THE RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK	W5510 FRANKS MELVILLE MEMORIAL LIBRARY	STONY BROOK	NY	11794	SUFFOLK	USA	Cancer Cause and Prevention Research	000	1	4/8/2024	NEW	$94,120
														Subtotal = $94,120

Grand Total All Awards = $173,365

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

Disentangling the effect of Black/African Ancestry from confounding variables on colorectal cancer biology

Award Number: R03CA283359

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 04/08/2024

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 03/31/2026

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer