The University of Illinois Cancer Center is proud to announce the inaugural Richard B. Warnecke, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellowship was awarded to Graham Read, PhD, who will use the $15,000 grant to support research into health disparities associated with microRNA biology.
Named after the late Richard B. Warnecke, PhD, a longtime Cancer Center member and a national leader in cancer control research, the Warnecke Fellowship strives to meet an imperative need to train exceptionally talented and diverse scientists engaged in cancer health disparities research that addresses cross-cutting health disparity issues across the cancer continuum from etiology and primary prevention to treatment and survivorship.
After earning his PhD at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Read joined the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) as a postdoctoral fellow in pathology in January 2024. His advisor is Larisa Nonn, PhD, a Professor in the Department of Pathology, who also serves as Associate Director for Career Enhancement and Education at the Cancer Center. Additionally, Read is an Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Award (IRACDA) Fellow, a program of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to develop a diverse group of highly trained scientists to address the nation’s biomedical research needs that develops both their research and teaching skills.
From experiences working as a public health researcher as an undergraduate in southwestern Kenya to his training and research experience thus far that have developed him as a molecular biologist, Read was drawn to studying health disparities in the context of cancer. During his graduate research, Read published a review on how inherited single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in microRNA-related genes, which vary significantly by patient ethnicity, could predict risk and prognosis of breast cancer.
“I came to UIC because it paired an environment designed to train future faculty with a research program that merges microRNA biology with patient health disparities. I have thus far been thankful for the opportunities this institution has provided. The Richard B. Warnecke Postdoctoral Fellowship Program would provide critical resources and support in improving my research into health disparities associated with microRNA biology,” Read wrote in his fellowship application.
More About Richard B. Warnecke, PhD, Professor Emeritus
For more than 40 years, Warnecke conducted research and community outreach that provided immeasurable service to women with cancer. Long before “health disparities” became a research category among federal and nonprofit funding agencies, Warnecke was committed to this mission. His effort was in addressing inequities in health outcomes, going well beyond simply identifying risk factors. He worked to develop and implement interventions that made a difference in so many women’s lives.