Yara Abdou, MD, an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Oncology at the UNC School of Medicine and leader of the breast cancer clinical trial program at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, has been named a recipient of the Robert A. Winn Excellence in Clinical Trials: Clinical Investigator Leadership Award (Winn CILA).
The Winn CILA is a three-year development program aimed at early-career clinical investigators who have previously received the Winn Career Development Award. The program offers salary support, advanced expertise in clinical trials, mentorship, and institutional networking to help participants become independent and effective community-focused clinical researchers.
“Receiving the Winn Clinical Investigator Leadership Award is a tremendous honor,” Abdou said. “The Winn program has a strong commitment to advancing diversity in clinical research leadership, and being recognized within that community is both meaningful and motivating. It reinforces the importance of building inclusive, patient-centered clinical trial programs.”
Abdou’s work centers on improving outcomes for breast cancer patients through innovative trials and translational research. She focuses on reducing disparities in care by ensuring underrepresented groups have equal access to new therapies and studies. Her interests include developing biomarker-driven strategies such as circulating tumor DNA and immune-based approaches to personalize treatments.
The award will support her ongoing efforts by providing mentorship, leadership development opportunities, and connections with national collaborators dedicated to inclusive research practices. Abdou noted that this recognition will also help strengthen UNC Lineberger’s capacity to conduct scientifically rigorous trials that are representative of diverse patient populations.
The Winn CILA is part of three awards under the Winn Awards umbrella, created in 2020 by the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation to boost participation in clinical trials across communities and expand access to medical advances. The oncology-focused component is implemented with partners including Conquer Cancer (the ASCO Foundation) and the American Heart Association.
Dr. Abdou joins six other physicians nationwide as part of this year’s cohort selected for the award.
“We are delighted to witness the growth in leadership skills as well as the strong relationships developed between the Winn CILA-Oncology investigators and their National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) mentors. Already we have seen progress — expanded networks, patient recruitment, and innovation in clinical trials design,” said Michal Tibbits, Vice President, Professional Development Department at ASCO.
The broader Winn Awards initiative aims to train early-stage investigator physicians so that patients enrolled in trials reflect those most affected by disease—working toward more effective treatments for all populations.
More information about these programs can be found at www.winnawards.org.
