Team SAMBAI, an interdisciplinary, global team including Yaw Bediako, CEO and co-founder of Yemaachi Biotech, has been selected to receive up to $25 million from Cancer Grand Challenges over five years to take on the challenge of cancer inequities.
Dr. Melissa B. Davis, the Director of the Institute of Translational Genomic Medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine and the New York Genome Centre (NYGC) Associate Faculty and Polyethnic-1000 (P-1000) Cancer Ethnicity Scholar, led the research team.
This means SAMBAI (Societal, Ancestry, Molecular, and Biological Analyses of Inequalities) will be the only research team to address the issue of inequities in cancer prevention, screening, and treatment.
“We couldn’t be prouder to be part of this global team of collaborators, tackling one of the most important challenges in cancer today—inequity in research, diagnosis, and outcomes— and to be led by Melissa Davis, Ph.D., a true pioneer in the field of cancer genomics and health equity,” said Yaw Bediako, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Yemaachi.
“We are confident that this work will be fruitful and will contribute to innovations that will benefit patients globally. We are honored by Team SAMBAI’s belief in our scientific work and impact-driven mission,” he added.
⚡ We are proud to share that @YemaachiBio and CEO @YawBediako_ , as part of Team SAMBAI, have received a Cancer Grand Challenges award of up to $25 million over five years to advance research on cancer inequities.
Read the full release: https://t.co/Io1Vega2V9 pic.twitter.com/yud295BWxs— Yemaachi Biotech (@YemaachiBio) March 6, 2024
Inequities in cancer prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, and research lead to disparities in cancer incidence and mortality and are a major public health concern.
Team SAMBAI aims to create an unprecedented resource—the SAMBAI Biobank and Data Repository for Cancer Equity Research—to define the factors that cause and influence disparate cancer outcomes in diverse underserved populations, with a focus on breast, prostate and pancreatic cancer in people of African descent.
SAMBAI’s research and biobank will include comprehensive measurement of social, environmental, genetic and biological factors that can be used to help characterize, understand, and eliminate cancer inequities.
Team SAMBAI envisions that its approach will allow for the clarification of critical cancer inequalities research questions and provide unparalleled international datasets for testing hypotheses to produce global action to overcome cancer inequities.
“Diversifying cancer genomics and research is critical to improving outcomes. Team SAMBAI’s work will help realize the promise of precision medicine for the benefit of underrepresented communities and patients everywhere,” said Melissa Davis.
Cancer Grand Challenges is a global funding initiative, co-founded by Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute in the US.
It supports a community of diverse, global teams to come together, think differently, and take on cancer’s toughest challenges.
About Yemaachi
Yemaachi is a wholly-owned Ghanaian cancer research firm creating and harnessing the world’s most robust cancer bio-database to develop the next generation of cancer diagnostics and drugs that are effective in diverse populations.
It has a mission of saving lives globally while supporting the well-being of communities that inspire and advance its work.
Yemaachi believes in a future where African genomic diversity, insights, and expertise are an integral part of precision oncology research, diagnostics, and therapeutics, for the benefit of patients everywhere.
About Grand Cancer Challenges
Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute, two of the largest funders of cancer research in the world, co-founded the initiative in 2020.
Cancer Grand Challenges supports a global community of diverse, world-class research teams to come together, think differently and take on some of cancer’s toughest challenges.
With the award of up to US$25 million, Cancer Grand Challenges teams are “empowered to rise above the traditional boundaries of geography and discipline to make the progress against cancer we urgently need.”
