This application is for a Research Career Scientist Award for Dr. Subhra Mohapatra (nominee) who is a research microbiologist at the James A. Haley VA Hospital, Tampa, FL, and an Associate Professor at the VA-affiliated academic center, the University of South Florida. Since 2007, the nominee has been contributing significantly to VA research and services via training, mentoring and collaboration with VA investigators. She is recognized nationally and internationally for her contributions to the field of tumor biology, particularly pertaining to mechanism of tumor- stroma interactions, 3D culture-based anti-cancer drug discovery, and nanoscale anti-cancer drug delivery approaches. She has contributed significantly to scientific literature including over 61 publications, which have generated ~2419 citations and a cumulative H-Index of 28 and i10-Index of 45. She also holds 12 US patents. Dr. Mohapatra has received substantial extramural research support (~$13 million) including awards from the NIH, ONR, Department of Veterans Affairs and Florida Department of Health. She also served as guest editor of the Journal of Drug Delivery and Translational Research (a journal of the Controlled Release Society) special issue entitled “NanoBio Interface: From Lab to Clinic.” She was selected for “Faces of Technology” by the Florida High Tech Corridor and was awarded the 2014 Excellence in Innovation award by the USF Office of Research and Innovation. Dr. Mohapatra has been funded with the two Merit Review Awards. She has initiated a third project for a future Merit proposal. Current research activities supported by VA Merit Review (VMR) are summarized below. VMR Project #1 (2016-2019). Investigate the potential of a novel combinatorial therapeutic approach in a rat model of moderate TBI that includes (i) a treatment to reduce inflammation (local and systemic) using a nano-formulated siRNA against a recently discovered target, CCL20, and (ii) a second treatment to promote neuroregeneration by mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy. VMR Project #2 (2017-2021). Investigate the potential of a novel targeted oncolytic viro-cell therapy using MSCs infected by a common cold virus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), for lung cancers. The project involves infecting hMSCs with wild type or mutant RSV and testing them in vitro using 3D tumoroid platform and then testing their anti-cancer potential using immunocompetent syngeneic orthotopic model of lung cancer. In addition, she serves as a co-I in a third VMR project that focuses on RSV. Project #3 (VMR project in development). Discover and investigate the potential of novel anticancer agents targeting cancer stem cells (CSCs) for the treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC). The project involves use of 3D tumoroid platform to screen for anticancer agents that will inhibit expansion of CRC-CSCs and then testing therapeutic efficacy of these agents in mouse model of CRCs. These highly innovative programs taken together are...