Cancer Disparities

Dr. Marvella E. Ford is a tenured Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) College of Medicine. Dr. Ford is the Associate Director of Population Sciences and Cancer Disparities at the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute (NIH/NCI)-designated MUSC Hollings Cancer Center. She also serves as the SmartState Endowed Chair in Cancer Disparities, Prostate Cancer Disparities Center of Economic Excellence at South Carolina State University (SCSU). Dr. Ford received her master of science in social psychology, master of social work in policy and planning, and doctor of philosophy degree in social work and psychology from the University of Michigan, where she also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in health and aging. Dr. Ford’s research interests include cancer disparities, gerontology, and recruitment and retention of diverse populations in clinical trials. Dr. Ford has served as principal investigator for a number of federally-funded research grants focused on cancer disparities. In collaboration with Dr. Judith Salley from SCSU, Dr. Ford led an NIH/NCI U54 grant with the goal of expanding cancer disparities research in South Carolina while cultivating a diverse network of cancer researchers titled, “South Carolina Cancer Disparities Research Center (SC CADRE). This grant provided support for cancer disparities research at MUSC and SCSU, and provided opportunities for underrepresented students and junior faculty to gain training in cancer research methods.In her role as a multiple principal investigator Dr. Ford has led an NIH/NCI-funded Minority Based Community Oncology Research Program together with Drs. Chanita Hughes-Halbert, Carolyn Britten, and David Marshall to increase the participation of diverse participants in cancer research. Dr. Ford has also collaborated with Dr. Nestor Esnaola as a multiple principal investigator of an NIH/National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities grant titled “Improving Resection Rates among African Americans with NSCLC. The study’s goal was to evaluate a strategy to improve rates of receipt of surgery among African Americans with early-stage lung cancer.Dr. Ford has also led several cancer research training programs funded by the NIH/NCI and Department of Defense in collaboration with the University of South Carolina and three historically black colleges/universities (HBCUs) in South Carolina: Claflin University, South Carolina State University, and Voorhees College. To date, Dr. Ford has published more than 95 peer-reviewed scientific papers, many written in collaboration with HBCU undergraduate students, as well as nine book chapters.

Dr. Dennis K. Watson has long standing interest and expertise in the areas of cellular and molecular biology, gene discovery, cellular differentiation and molecular oncology. During the initial stages of oncogene discovery, he was among the first to molecularly characterize the viral and cellular myc genes. He was also among the discoverers of the Ets gene family and has been directly responsible for the isolation and characterization of Ets gene products and their role in cellular proliferation, differentiation and etiology of cancer. In addition to continuing to evaluate the role of specific Ets genes in cellular transformation, his laboratory has identified and functionally characterized genes with altered expression during cancer progression. His research program has expertise in using in vitro and in vivo loss of function and gain of function approaches and molecular analyses to examine the functional significance of altered expression and the regulatory networks that such changes control. Recent studies in Dr. Watson’s laboratory have explored the role of regulatory circuitry in tumor cell interaction with the microenvironment. Dr. Watson has an extensive track record in educating and providing mentorship to over 25 predoctoral students, 25 postdoctoral trainees, and 12 junior faculty. He has also been a member of the thesis committees for 56 other graduate students and is the leader of the MUSC College of Graduate Studies’ Cancer Biology curriculum for predoctoral students. After more than a decade as research program leader for the MUSC-HCC Cancer Genes and Molecular Regulation Program, he was appointed the inaugural Associate Director for Education and Training in 2013. In this role, he chairs the career development committee of the MUSC-HCC K12 program, and works with MUSC-HCC leadership to develop education and training initiatives.