Physician-scientists from the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have been selected as recipients of 2025 research awards from the Conquer Cancer Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), in recognition of their contributions to advancing breast cancer research and care.
Dr. Marla Lipsyc-Sharf and Dr. Jingran Ji, both clinical instructors in the division of hematology/oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, each received a Career Development Award, a three-year, $200,000 mentored grant that supports early-career physician-scientists as they transition to independent clinical research careers and aims to accelerate discoveries in clinical oncology and improve outcomes for patients with cancer.
Lipsyc-Sharf, who is mentored by Dr. Aditya Bardia, an internationally recognized breast cancer clinician and researcher in therapeutics and blood-based biomarkers, will be partnering with industry to lead a Phase II clinical trial testing whether changing treatments based on a circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) blood test can reduce the risk of recurrence of estrogen-receptor positive breast cancers.
Ji, who is mentored by UCLA’s Dr. Mina Sedrak, a worldwide leader in cancer and aging research, is investigating whether targeting aging biology with a natural supplement called fisetin can reverse chemotherapy-related aging in older breast cancer survivors. The study will evaluate changes in physical function and biological markers of aging in postmenopausal women who have undergone chemotherapy.
Dr. Alexis LeVee, who recently joined UCLA as a clinical instructor in the division of hematology/oncology, received a Young Investigator Award, which provides funding to early-career researchers to support innovative projects with the potential to improve cancer care and treatment. Her research explores whether the gut microbiome can predict response to immunotherapy in early-stage triple-negative breast cancer and how it influences the body’s anti-tumor immune response.
In addition to these career development and young investigator awards, Dr. Yuliya Zektser, a hematology-oncology fellow at UCLA, received a Conquer Cancer Merit Award for her abstract on the link between frailty and clinical outcomes in older adults with early breast cancer that was presented at the 2025 ASCO meeting. Under the mentorship of Sedrak, her study found that older adults with early breast cancer who were prefrail or frail before starting chemotherapy faced a higher risk of severe toxicity, dose reductions, treatment delays, early chemotherapy discontinuation, and non-breast cancer deaths compared with those who were robust.
“We are incredibly proud of the team members for their ongoing translational work and potential impact,” said Bardia, professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and director of Translational Research Integration at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. “These awards underscore UCLA’s strong commitment to nurturing the next generation of physician-scientists and advancing breakthrough research that will directly benefit patients with cancer.”
