UNC professor Stephen Hursting receives $5.34 million grant to keep researching obesity-cancer connection

Stephen Hursting, a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member and professor of nutrition at the Gillings School of Public Health, has received a research grant of $5.34 million from the National Cancer Institute. 

The Outstanding Investigator Award supports top cancer researchers whose contributions may lead to breakthroughs, according to the National Cancer Institute website. Hursting will receive the $5.34 million over a seven-year period to continue his research on the connections between obesity and cancer. 

“It’s a bigger picture than a usual grant,” Hursting said. "It’s allowing us to tackle this obesity-cancer connection in a more comprehensive fashion."

Hursting said his research aims to look at four major areas, including preventative and treatment measures. 

Jana Harrison, deputy director at UNC's Nutrition Research Institute, said she is proud to have Hursting at the Institute. 

“He’s very deserving in terms of his own work, in studying obesity and cancer,” Harrison said. "It’s been kind of a lifelong passion of his."

Harrison said she enjoys working with Hursting.

“He is really collaborative," Harrison said. "He helps trainees, he helps graduate students, he works well with other professors and administrative staff. He is one of the people we’re really proud to have affiliated with our institute."

Hursting has been working on this research since he began his doctoral studies at UNC in 1988. 

“I started working on how nutrition impacts cancer, and I haven’t stopped,” Hursting said.

He said the tools for his research have improved greatly over the last 27 years.

"We’re able to look at things with more detail and deeper into the mechanisms," Hursting said.

Hursting has spent his career working for the National Cancer Institute and teaching at The University of Texas. He returned to UNC in 2014. 

“The opportunities to research here, in particular what I do, are incredible,” Hursting said.

David Pesci, director of communications at the Gillings School of Public Health, said in an email that he believes this award will help Hursting's research develop effective preventative and treatment methods. 

“Dr. Hursting is one of the most accomplished and respected researchers in his field and the type of faculty member that our students and the faculty here at UNC are excited to work with,” Pesci said.

Hursting said the ultimate goal of his research is to decrease the impact obesity has on cancer. 

“We’re not going to stop the cancer problem by treatment alone, we really need to prevent this disease,” Hursting said.

Hursting is one of 43 researchers nationwide to receive the Outstanding Investigator Award. 

“Not only am I grateful for the funding to be able to look at this problem from many angles and to have a major impact on the field today,” Hursting said. “I’m also really pleased this gives us a stable setting to be strong contributors to training the next generation.” 

university@dailytarheel.com