Project Grant R41CA239952

This Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, provides $4,069,734 under the Cancer Treatment Research program to develop synthetic metabolic approaches to enhance T cell therapies for cancer. The Georgia Tech Research Corporation will apply concepts from metabolic engineering and synthetic biology over three years to engineer T cells that can resist tumor metabolic immunosuppression, degrade immunosuppressive metabolic...

This Project Grant award of $640,583 from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) under the Cancer Treatment Research (CFDA 93.395) program supports research by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) to enhance the efficacy of immunotherapy against metastatic colorectal cancer (MCRC). The primary goal is to activate the PPARD-CPT1A axis in CD8+ T cells to boost their metabolic fitness and anti-tumor activity within the immunosuppressive MCRC tumor microenvironment. The research aims to delineate the...

This $693,880 Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Treatment Research program (CFDA 93.395) supports the development of a novel cancer immunotherapy approach using engineered CD4+ T cells. The goal is to create CD4+ T cells that can target the tumor microenvironment and overcome resistance to current immune checkpoint inhibitor therapies. Key elements include: Identifying key molecules and immune cell targets of the engineered CD4+ T cells in preclinical cancer...

This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (CFDA 93.847 - Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases Extramural Research) totaling $1,408,665 aims to elucidate the mechanisms by which the drug metformin regulates T cell metabolism and function, both directly and indirectly, in the context of obesity. The research will be conducted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and will utilize mouse models and human samples to: (1)...

This SBIR Phase I project, awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) program (CFDA 47.084), aims to develop a method to turn on cancer immunotherapies only at the site of disease. The $275,000 award will support Synsorybio, Inc., a for-profit organization, in creating protein switches that activate immunotherapies in response to disease signals, rather than indiscriminately throughout the body. This approach seeks to improve the...

This R03 project grant, awarded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) under CFDA Program 93.350, aims to comprehensively identify metabolic enzymes that control the generation of TCF1+ progenitor CD8+ T cells, which are critical for durable anti-tumor immune responses. The $169,500 award, spanning from September 1, 2024 to August 31, 2026, will fund two key research objectives: Identifying metabolic enzymes whose loss alters T cell differentiation and the TCF1+...

This Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.396 - Cancer Biology Research) provides $626,534 in funding to The Medical University of South Carolina to conduct research aimed at understanding how transient endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress can enhance the anti-tumor function of T cells. The 5-year project, starting on December 1, 2024, will investigate the mechanisms by which ER stress-induced autophagy can improve mitochondrial function, metabolic programming, and...

The Project Grant award R01CA300217, funded by the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.395 Cancer Treatment Research), provides $532,970.00 to the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to investigate the role of CD4 T helper cells in promoting effective anti-tumor immune responses and enhancing response to PD-1 targeted immunotherapy. The 5-year project aims to define the key cell-intrinsic features and interactions of anti-tumor CD4 T cells that can improve cancer treatment outcomes....

This federal Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) under the Cancer Cause and Prevention Research program (CFDA 93.393) provides $678,399 to The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to conduct a prebiotic diet intervention study. The goal is to evaluate whether a prebiotic-enriched diet can enhance the gut microbiome and improve response to immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy in patients with metastatic melanoma. The 5-year study will investigate the...

This Project Grant award of $147,656 from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), under the Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health program (CFDA 93.286), supports research at Columbia University to integrate biomaterials and genomic tools for glycan-based programming of immune cells. The key objectives of the research are to: 1) Advance self-assembling modular hydrogels that programmably display glycan ligands and...