National Cancer Institute awards $222,750 grant to biology professor Omar Quintero

The National Cancer Institute has awarded a $222,750 grant to Omar Quintero, assistant professor of biology at the University of Richmond. The grant will cover much of two years' salary for Quintero and a post-baccalaureate researcher. The university will provide the balance of the salaries as well as lab start-up funds. 

Quintero will use the grant, called a Mentored Research Scientist Development Award to Promote Diversity, to continue his research on “Enzymatic and Motor Properties of Myosin 19,” a molecular motor protein that might be involved in cellular mechanisms that often malfunction in cancer cells.

Quintero will include Richmond students on his team, and work with Linda Boland, associate professor of biology at Richmond; Robert Tombes, professor of biology at VCU; and Christopher Yengo, associate professor of cellular and molecular physiology at Pennsylvania State University.

Quintero received a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in cell biology from Duke University.

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