NRI Researcher Receives Award to Further Work on Obesity and Cancer

December 1, 2015 • University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill professor Stephen Hursting has received a prestigious National Cancer Institute (NCI) Outstanding Investigator Award (OIA), which provides stable funding for cancer research with breakthrough potential. Dr. Hursting, a professor in UNC’s Department of Nutrition, Nutrition Research Institute and Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, is one of 43 researchers nationwide to receive an OIA. The grant will provide Hursting with $5.34 million over a seven-year period to further his research on the mechanistic links between obesity and cancer.

Dr. Hursting Awarded Grant from Breast Cancer Research Foundation

October 28, 2015 • The Breast Cancer Research Foundation seeks “to prevent and cure breast cancer by advancing the world’s most promising research.”Since 1993 BCRF-supported investigators have been deeply involved in every major advance in breast cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment. In 2015-2016, BCRF is awarding $48.5 million in grants to more than 240 scientists to advance this work. Among those recipients is Stephen Hursting, Ph.D., M.P.H., Professor of Nutrition at the UNC Nutrition Research Institute.

Liver Cancer Report Reveals New Links: Coffee is Protective, Obesity Increases Risk

Liver Cancer Report Reveals New Links: Coffee is Protective, Obesity Increases Risk

April 1, 2015 • For the first time, a report from an ongoing systematic review of global research finds that drinking coffee lowers risk for liver cancer, a disease that is increasing in the U.S. and the second leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide.
Today’s report also finds strong evidence linking body fatness to increased risk for liver cancer. This means that liver cancer now officially joins the growing list of cancers caused by overweight and obesity. Sixty-nine percent of U.S. adults are currently overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Series to help laypeople understand science

Saturday, February 14, 2015 • The following has been reprinted from Charlotte Observer, an article by Lisa Thornton. If Dr. Natalia Surzenko told you that choline produces increased hippocampal neurogenesis in Mus musculus, you probably wouldn’t understand. But if she said a nutrient called choline, naturally found in foods such as egg yolks, salmon and cocoa powder has been shown to regenerate brain cells responsible for increased memory in mice, that would be different. At the UNC Nutrition Research Institute in Kannapolis, where Surzenko, a neurobiologist, has her lab, a new series called “Appetite for Life” is intended to create clearer dialogue between researchers and laypeople about discoveries changing the way experts view nutrition.

Favorable Modulation of Benign Breast Tissue and Serum Risk Biomarkers Is Associated with >10% Weight Loss in Postmenopausal Women

Favorable modulation of benign breast tissue and serum risk biomarkers is associated with > 10 % weight loss in postmenopausal women.
Fabian CJ, Kimler BF, Donnelly JE, Sullivan DK, Klemp JR, Petroff BK, Phillips TA, Metheny T, Aversman S, Yeh HW, Zalles CM, Mills GB, Hursting SD.
Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2013 Nov;142(1):119-32. doi: 10.1007/s10549-013-2730-8. Epub 2013 Oct 19.
PMID: 24141897