The V Foundation for Cancer Research, founded by ESPN and legendary basketball coach Jim Valvano "to achieve Victory Over Cancer," has awarded LMP assistant professor Stefani Thomas a 2020 V Scholar Grant for Black/African American Cancer Researchers.  The two-year grant totaling $200,000 will enable Thomas to pursue her proposed research project of exploring "Proteome-level mechanisms of PARP inhibitor sensitivity in BRCA1/2-mutated high-grade serous ovarian cancer.”  

Thomas is a clinical chemist and a faculty member of the Advanced Research and Diagnostics Laboratory (ARDL) and a member of the Masonic Cancer Center.  She is also the Associate Medical Director of the West Bank Laboratory.  Driven by the expanding use of mass spectrometry in the clinical laboratory, Thomas applies discovery and targeted proteomics methods to investigate and elucidate the biology of ovarian cancer and to analyze proteins derived from changes in cancer genomes.

Thomas is a graduate faculty member in Pharmacology; Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics (BMBB); and Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology (MICaB).

Since its formation in 1993, the V Foundation has awarded more than $260 million in cancer research grants nationwide.