One Conversation Led to a $225,000 Cancer Research Award. This Year’s Conference Could Lead to the Next

When Kondapa Naidu Bobba, PhD, walked into the Tennessee Statewide Cancer Collaborative Scientific Meeting led by the University of Tennessee Health Sciences in Nashville last year, he didn't know the conversations he'd have there would help reshape the direction of his research and ultimately help secure a $225,000 award to fight prostate cancer.

Dr. Bobba, assistant professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, was selected earlier this year to receive the 2026 Young Investigator Award, a prestigious honor jointly supported by the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) and the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI). The three-year, $225,000 award will support his work developing next-generation radiopharmaceutical therapies for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. His laboratory is designing therapeutic agents that better target prostate tumors while minimizing damage to healthy tissue, an approach that could improve treatment options for patients with advanced disease. The award also marks the first SNMMI-funded radiopharmaceutical therapy research project within UT Knoxville's Department of Nuclear Engineering.

The collaboration that helped make the award possible began at last year's statewide meeting.

There, Dr. Bobba met two distinguished UT Health Sciences researchers: Wei Li, PhD, distinguished professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and director of the Drug Discovery Center in the College of Pharmacy, and Jonathan Wall, PhD, assistant dean for Research in the College of Medicine - Knoxville and director of the Amyloidosis and Cancer Theranostics Program. What started as an informal conversation about shared scientific interests quickly evolved into an ongoing collaboration focused on prostate cancer. Drs. Li and Wall later wrote letters of support for Dr. Bobba's Young Investigator Award application and served as mentors throughout the grant process.

Dr. Bobba's experience is exactly the kind of outcome Vice Chancellor for Research Jessica Snowden, MD, hoped to inspire when she launched the Tennessee Statewide Cancer Collaborative. Now, as UT Health Sciences prepares to host the 2nd Annual Tennessee Statewide Cancer Collaborative Scientific Meeting on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, 2026, at the Hutton Hotel in Nashville, organizers are hoping this year's attendees will form the next research partnership that leads to a breakthrough.

This year's theme, "From Discovery to Impact: Accelerating Cancer Solutions for Tennessee," reflects the same spirit that brought Drs. Bobba, Li and Wall together: bringing researchers, clinicians and public health leaders from across the state into the same room to exchange ideas, identify shared interests and build collaborations that can lead to new discoveries, competitive grant applications and better outcomes for patients.

The two-day meeting will feature sessions on Tennessee's cancer landscape and health disparities, advances in clinical cancer research, population health strategies, and translational and therapeutic discovery. Plenary sessions will be organized around two tracks, Clinical & Population Health and Translational & Therapeutic Discovery, with dedicated networking time built into the schedule to encourage new collaborations.

The conference will feature two nationally recognized keynote speakers.

Roy Jensen, MD, director of The University of Kansas Cancer Center, has led the center through its National Cancer Institute designation and subsequent recognition as a Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is internationally recognized for his research on the BRCA1 gene and hereditary breast cancer.

Carolyn J. Anderson, PhD, Simón-Ellebracht Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, professor of Radiology at the University of Missouri and associate director of the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center, is an internationally renowned radiopharmaceutical scientist whose work is advancing both cancer imaging and targeted therapies, as well as treatments for sickle cell disease.

For Dr. Bobba, the conference's emphasis on collaboration has already paid dividends. His laboratory is now advancing the therapeutic platform supported by the Young Investigator Award, work strengthened by the collaborations that began with a single conversation at last year's meeting in Nashville.

For Dr. Snowden, Dr. Bobba's success is exactly what the collaborative was designed to achieve.

"As the collaborative enters its second year, we're hoping this year's meeting produces the next Dr. Bobba story - another conversation that grows into a funded discovery and ultimately improves the lives of patients," Dr. Snowden said.

Dr. Li agrees. "I think that this is one of the good outcomes from Dr. Snowden's efforts in organizing the statewide cancer meeting for the building of new and potentially productive connections, especially among UT Health Sciences and UT Knoxville researchers," Dr. Li said.

Conference registration is now open to basic scientists, clinical investigators, population health experts and institutional leaders from across Tennessee.