Extending Support for Early-Stage Investigators

Victoria Bae-Jump, M.D., Ph.D., credits her father, a pediatrician, for her foray into medicine and notes how encouragement from mentors during her formative research years helped her persevere. While building her laboratory, she worked hard to balance her time seeing patients in the clinic and writing numerous grant applications to support her research, all while parenting a growing family that included twins.

She received training and career development grants from NCI that allowed her to focus on her research in addition to clinical responsibilities. She appreciates that NCI provides funding opportunities to scientists at every career level, including early-stage investigators like her.

Victoria reached a milestone in 2018 when she received her 5-year R01 grant from NCI to study the metabolic and molecular differences of endometrial tumors in obese and non-obese women. “The R01 gives you the feeling that you’ve finally made it,” Victoria reflected. “It gives credibility.”

She was thrilled further to hear that NCI converted her R01 grant into an R37 award, providing her the possibility of 2 additional years of funding, for a total of 7 years of support. “Sometimes just doing your research is what you need to do rather than writing grant applications all the time,” Victoria said. “The 2 extra years of funding,” she added, “will allow me and my laboratory more time and resources to identify better ways to prevent and treat patients with endometrial cancer.”