The National Cancer Institute (NCI), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded a $195,766 Project Grant (CFDA 93.395 - Cancer Treatment Research) to Yale University to develop a mechano-transduction platform that will enhance chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies for treating solid tumors. The project aims to engineer force-sensitive coiled-coils that can be genetically encoded into CAR T-cells to measure forces along key immune receptors (Aim 1) and create...
The National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, awarded a $222,998 Project Grant (CFDA 93.395 Cancer Treatment Research) to the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) on March 10, 2025. The grant will fund research to engineer endogenous immune cells, including T cells, NK cells, and macrophages, to express chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) capable of targeting and killing ovarian cancer cells. The research will utilize a novel virus-like particle (VLP) vector...
This federal Project Grant award of $513,859, provided by the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.395 - Cancer Treatment Research), supports research to develop a novel adoptive cellular therapy platform using hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) engineered with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) technology. The goal is to generate a continuously renewing population of CAR-expressing natural killer (NK) cells that can provide long-term, safe, and efficacious anti-cancer immunity. The research aims to...
This Project Grant award of $1,271,780.00 from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), under the Cancer Treatment Research program (CFDA 93.395), supports research to develop small molecule adaptors for programming a universal chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy. The key objectives are to: 1) Develop small molecule adaptors to target the universal CAR to multiple antigens, including tumor cells and immunosuppressive cells; 2) Enhance targeting specificity using chemical switches...
The National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), awarded a $627,272 Project Grant (CFDA 93.395 Cancer Treatment Research) to The Johns Hopkins University to optimize the efficacy of CAR T cells against pancreatic tumors. The goal is to engineer self-propelled, tumor-infiltrating CAR T cells using synthetic cytokine receptors (velocity receptors) that enhance CAR T cell migration speed and tumor infiltration. The researchers plan to test the motility and...
This Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.395 Cancer Treatment Research) provides $798,512 to Luminary Therapeutics, Inc. to develop an allogeneic gamma/delta armored dual-targeting chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy to treat epithelial ovarian carcinoma. The project aims to address key challenges with current CAR T-cell therapies against solid tumors, including antigen escape and poor T-cell persistence, by using a "split CAR" approach that...
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) awarded a $1,313,806 Project Grant under the Cancer Treatment Research (CFDA 93.395) federal grant program to the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research. The grant, awarded on August 13, 2024, supports research to develop and translate CD28 costimulated chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells that target mesothelin, a cancer-associated antigen overexpressed in solid tumors. Key objectives include exploiting IFN-gamma-mediated cytotoxic mechanisms,...
This Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.394 - Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research) provides $1,274,742 to Northwestern University to engineer a high-performing microfluidic system for the rapid, non-invasive isolation and expansion of circulating tumor-reactive lymphocytes (CTRLS) from patient blood samples. The goal is to develop this first-in-class microfluidic cell sorting and culturing system to enable effective second-line treatment against recurrent or...
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...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.396 - Cancer Biology Research) provides $604,627 to the Trustees of Dartmouth College to conduct research focused on "Deconvoluting CAR T Cell Heterogeneity to Engineer Durable Antitumor Protection." The research aims to optimize chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies to improve their efficacy against solid tumors. Key objectives include using dynamic lineage recording to understand individual CAR...