WORCESTER, Mass. -Nearly $400,000 will allow a WPI professor to expand her research on the role tissue stiffening plays in pancreatic cancer, cancer metastasis, and lymphedema.

Professor Catherine Whittington was awarded three different grants to build out projects and support undergraduate and graduate student researchers.

They’ll use 3D models to show the effects of diseases. Whittington said one project will focus on what happens to tissue around lymphatic vessels experience stiffening.

“Stiffening happens over time with a lot of tissues during disease but when we’re trying to build these models, they don’t account for that happening over time,” Whittington said. “That’s what we’re trying to do, is look at what the impact is with disease and how these vessels grow and how they function. That’s important because we can understand what happens when they become dysfunctional or they’re not working properly or growing properly.”

The grants come from the National Cancer Institute, the National Science Foundation, and the University of Michigan.

It’s part of a national initiative aimed at addressing historical discrepancies in the amount of federal grant money awarded to Black scientists.