Bennett received the R50 Research Specialist Award, designed to encourage stable research career opportunities for exceptional scientists pursuing research in the context of an existing NCI-funded cancer research program. The awards go to researchers who are vital to sustaining the biomedical research enterprise.

Since 2016, Bennett has supervised teams of researchers and performed key experiments for the NCI-funded research program of UF Health Cancer Center Director Jonathan Licht, M.D., studying how epigenetic mechanisms are disrupted in cancer. By identifying epigenetic dependencies and pathways involved in tumor progression and spread, research in the Licht lab aims to improve targeted therapies and ultimately improve patient outcomes.

The team, led by senior authors Xin Tang, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering and a member of the UF Health Cancer Center, and Bo Zeng, Ph. D., professor at the Institute of Cardiovascular Research at Southwest Medical University in China, used fluorescent imaging of the genetically encoded calcium indicators in human colon, prostate and lung cancer cells.