Blake Smith, PhD, has been awarded a seed grant through the American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant (ACS IRG) program at the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at The University of Iowa.

Smith, an assistant professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology, will receive $40,000 in support for his project, "A Scalable Dose Processing Repository for Estimating Radiobiologic Risk in Pediatric and Young Adult Patients Treated with Collimated Intensity Modulated Proton Therapy." The award runs from June 1, 2026, through May 31, 2027.

The project aims to develop tools for more accurately estimating the long-term radiobiologic risks associated with proton therapy in pediatric and young adult patients — a population for whom minimizing radiation exposure and late effects is especially critical. Intensity modulated proton therapy (IMPT) offers precise dose delivery, but understanding the full scope of radiobiologic risk requires scalable, systematic approaches to processing and analyzing dose data. Smith's work seeks to build that infrastructure.

The grant was awarded by the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center's Research Review Committee, which funds early-stage research with the potential to generate preliminary data and compete for larger national funding.

About Blake Smith Blake Smith received a master's degree and doctoral degree in medical physics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He completed his residency in radiation oncology at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics and is a board-certified therapeutic medical physicist through the American Board of Radiology. He joined the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Iowa as an assistant professor, where his work focuses on medical physics and radiation therapy.