Project Grant R44CA235991

Cooperative Agreement Summary The National Cancer Institute awarded a $2.05M Cooperative Agreement to Massachusetts General Hospital under the Cancer Treatment Research program (CFDA 93.395) for the period September 1, 2025 through August 31, 2028. The award supports the development and optimization of novel CAR-T (chimeric antigen receptor T cell) therapies targeting pancreatic cancer. The research deliverables include the advancement of meso-FAP CAR-TEAM cells—engineered T cells that...

Federal Project Grant Award Summary The National Cancer Institute (NCI) awarded $109,080 to The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York (Health Sciences Division) under the Cancer Research Manpower program (CFDA 93.398) to conduct a Phase II, investigator-initiated, multicenter randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluating novel immunotherapeutic approaches for treatment-naive metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (MPDA). The award, effective September 1, 2025, through...

The National Cancer Institute (NCI), under the Cancer Biology Research Program (CFDA 93.396), awarded a $654,197 Project Grant to The General Hospital Corporation (doing business as Massachusetts General Hospital) for a research project titled "Pancreatic Cancer Patient-Derived Xenograft Tumors for Translational Studies in Precision Cancer Medicine". The project aims to employ a unique collection of molecularly annotated low-passage patient-derived xenograft (PDX) tumors, spatial...

This $667,118 Project Grant was awarded on April 1, 2025 by the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.396 Cancer Biology Research) to The Regents of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to conduct research aimed at "Identifying and Disabling New Pathways for Macromolecular Recycling in Pancreatic Cancer". The project will focus on studying the role of key lysosomal factors, including PLBD1 and LGMN, that are essential for the survival and growth of pancreatic ductal...

The National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute awarded a $283,136 Project Grant to the Regents of the University of Michigan under the Cancer Research Manpower federal grant program (CFDA 93.398). The award will support research investigating cellular communication in the tumor microenvironment of pancreatic cancer. The grantee will examine how hedgehog signaling alters the immune landscape and endothelial cell function through fibroblast interactions. They will also determine the...

The University of Rochester received a $639,098 Project Grant from the National Cancer Institute under the Cancer Treatment Research program (CFDA 93.395), effective August 1, 2025, through July 31, 2030. This research initiative addresses treatment barriers in metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) by developing a combined therapeutic approach targeting both intrinsic tumor cell properties and the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. The research leverages a novel...

This $641,936 Project Grant awarded by the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.395 Cancer Treatment Research) aims to develop a novel approach using engineered chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-neutrophils to treat glioblastoma, the most aggressive type of brain cancer. The principal investigators at Purdue University will harness synthetic biology, machine learning, and in vivo models to investigate programming tumor-associated neutrophils as anti-tumor effector cells. The proposed strategy...

This federal Project Grant award of $270,981 from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.398 - Cancer Research Manpower) supports a five-year research program to investigate resistance mechanisms to anti-PD-1/L1 immunotherapy in hepatobiliary cancers. The key objectives are to: Conduct a Phase 2 trial evaluating an anti-TIGIT plus anti-PD-1 antibody combination in hepatobiliary cancers refractory to PD-1 blockade. Characterize immune and molecular features of anti-PD-1/L1 therapy-resistant...

This $677,176 federal Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.395 - Cancer Treatment Research) supports research to advance interstitial chemophototherapy (I-CPT) as a tumor ablation approach for locally advanced pancreatic cancer (PACA). The grant recipient, The Research Foundation For The State University Of New York, is developing a modified liposomal formulation of the chemotherapeutic agent irinotecan that incorporates porphyrin-phospholipid (POP) for light-triggered...

Federal Grant Award Summary The National Cancer Institute awarded a $716,521 Project Grant to Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research on August 25, 2025, under the Cancer Treatment Research program (CFDA 93.395) to develop and evaluate DLL3-targeted IL18-secreting Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cells as a novel immunotherapy for small cell lung cancer (SCLC). The research addresses a critical clinical need, as SCLC currently demonstrates exceptionally poor prognosis with median...