This $164,500 Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.396 - Cancer Biology Research) supports research to identify targetable mechanisms of S100A9-mediated brain metastasis in EGFR-mutant lung cancer. Led by researchers at Columbia University's Health Sciences Division, the project aims to investigate the epigenetic regulation and nuclear functions of S100A9 in promoting brain metastasis. Specifically, the researchers will employ advanced epigenomic profiling and genome...
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) awarded a $198,103 Project Grant (CFDA 93.395 - Cancer Treatment Research) to New York University (NYU) School of Medicine to conduct research on the role of the immune microenvironment in melanoma bone metastasis. The goal of this 2-year project is to better understand how melanoma cells infiltrate and modify the bone microenvironment, as well as how they communicate with immune cells and resist immunotherapy. The researchers will utilize preclinical murine...
This $619,279 Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.396 - Cancer Biology Research) supports research by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying metastatic recurrence and immune dysfunction in HER2+ breast cancer. The research employs innovative preclinical models to investigate how disseminated breast cancer cells survive in the brain microenvironment and initiate metachronous metastasis. Specifically, the...
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) awarded a $145,336 Project Grant under the Cancer Research Manpower (CFDA 93.398) program to the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research. The grant, with a period of performance from March 1, 2025 to February 28, 2027, supports research to metabolically reprogram hepatic macrophages to overcome the "immune-desert" tumor microenvironment in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The project aims to determine how macrophages lacking the TSC1 gene can...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.396 Cancer Biology Research) aims to reveal the comprehensive mechanism of how metastatic breast cancer induces permeability of the blood-brain barrier, thereby facilitating breast cancer brain metastases. The $479,591 award, with a performance period from March 1, 2025 to February 28, 2030, will be performed by the University of Illinois in Chicago. The research will investigate how cancer-derived Fetuin-A protein...
This $577,034 Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Biology Research program (CFDA 93.396) supports research to investigate the relationship between the physical properties of the metastatic microenvironment and the efficacy of the immune system's mechanosurveillance mechanisms in controlling cancer cell growth. The principal investigators, located at the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research and collaborating with researchers at Florida State University and...
This Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.398 - Cancer Research Manpower) provides $364,848 to Vanderbilt University to engineer and test a biomaterial therapy that locally delivers a RIG-I agonist to activate the immune system and improve immunotherapy response in mouse models of glioblastoma (GBM), an aggressive form of brain cancer. The project aims to 1) engineer RNA-loaded nanoparticles conjugated with a CD11b nanobody to target antigen presenting cells, and 2)...
The federal Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.395 - Cancer Treatment Research) provides $800,000 to Creative Biotherapeutics LLC, a biotechnology research firm, to develop a novel biologic therapy for eradicating brain cancer and brain metastases. The research aims to target the extracellular glucose-regulated protein 78 (eGRP78), a key protein upregulated in drug-resistant and recurrent brain cancers, in order to induce apoptosis of tumor cells, eliminate drug...
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) awarded a $509,448 Project Grant under the Cancer Research Manpower program (CFDA 93.398) to The Leland Stanford Junior University. The grant aims to delineate the antigen-presenting cell population responsible for mediating tumor-specific regulatory T cell induction and to develop immunotherapeutic strategies to overcome metastatic cancer. Specifically, the project will use high-dimensional imaging, single-cell RNA sequencing, in vivo cell depletion models,...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.398 - Cancer Research Manpower) in the amount of $162,486 supports research to characterize the mechanisms by which T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) cells infiltrate the central nervous system (CNS), specifically the meninges. The awardee, New York University School of Medicine, will use novel imaging techniques to investigate two potential routes of T-ALL entry into the meninges: 1) via bridging channels...
This $160,642 Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Research Manpower program (CFDA 93.398) supports research at New York University School of Medicine focused on targeting amyloid beta for immune reprogramming in brain metastasis. The 3-year project aims to characterize the role of amyloid beta in the brain metastasis microenvironment and determine if inhibiting amyloid beta production can enhance anti-tumor immunity and reduce brain metastasis growth. The award will fund mechanistic studies to understand how amyloid beta interacts with macrophages to promote an immunosuppressive tumor environment. The goal is to establish amyloid beta as a therapeutic target and uncover novel myeloid-based strategies for improving brain metastasis immunotherapies. This research is expected to position the early-career principal investigator to advance as an independent cancer biology and tumor immunology researcher.