Tennessee Valley Physician Receives VA’s Highest Research Award for Colon Cancer Studies

Williams was awarded the Senior Clinician Scientist Investigator (SCSI) Award, the highest tier within the VA’s Clinician Scientist Investigator (CSI) program. 

The Vanderbilt University Medical Center Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition focuses on understanding how the intestinal epithelium, cells that line the intestine and absorb nutrients, respond to injury and how patients with inflammatory bowel disease have an increased risk for colon cancer. 

Williams research, funded by VA’s Office of Research and Development, centers on the blood vessel epicardial substance (BVES) protein, which plays an important role in regulating cell growth. Previous studies have shown the BVES is often under expressed, or turned off, in colon cancer cells. When the protein is lost, normal controls on cell growth can break down, contributing to tumor formation. 

Moving forward, Williams aims to find ways to reactivate that protein or copy its reactivation. 

“This next chapter is really culminating years of basic science research,” Williams said. “Now shifting into the discovery phase, we're hoping to identify two or three lead compounds to then move into the clinical trial developmental pathway.”

To do that, Williams and his team are screening a library of phenothiazine derivatives to identify compounds that may help restore BVES activity. If successful, those compounds could potentially be developed into therapies that target underlying biological pathways involved in colon cancer. 

Because the BVES pathway appears to play a role in several types of cancer, the implications of the research could extend beyond colon cancer and benefit both Veterans and non-Veterans. 

“Modifying this pathway could be beneficial not just in colon cancer, but other epithelial malignancies,” Williams said. 

According to the American Cancer Society, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer diagnosed in the United States.

Within the CSI program, a Merit Award offers four years of support, while a standard CSI award provides six years. As the most prestigious grant given by VA, the SCSI award includes an additional extension, totaling eight years of projected funding. 

The award provides outstanding senior clinician-scientists who specialize in biomedical laboratory research with longer-term, flexible support to maintain their laboratory infrastructure, retain key staff, and explore transformative areas in their fields. 

“This award funds research over a much longer time span, which gives me the flexibility to evolve this research program most efficiently…that wouldn't be possible without having the SCSI award,” Williams said. 

Williams began training at Vanderbilt in 1994 and now also serves as Associate Dean for Physician Scientist Education and Training, where he mentors the next generation of clinician-scientists. 

“The VA funding opportunities are a crucial part of the advice to trainees beginning their careers. Many impactful scientific programs have been jump-started through VA funding, focusing brilliant minds on the toughest problems affecting our nation's Veterans,” Williams said.