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...
This Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), under the federal Cancer Cause and Prevention Research program (CFDA 93.393), is funding research at Wayne State University to investigate the role of the Ran guanine exchange factor, RCC1, in driving the progression of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). The $103,948 award, effective September 1, 2024 through August 31, 2026, will support the researcher's efforts to: 1) determine how RCC1 alters PDAC metabolic activity...
This $139,445 Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Research Manpower program (CFDA 93.398) will fund research by the Regents of the University of Michigan to characterize the role of mesothelial-derived cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in the pathogenesis of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA). The central hypothesis is that mesothelial cells give rise to a distinct, immunomodulatory population of CAFs that influence the PDA tumor microenvironment. Through in...
This Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.396 - Cancer Biology Research) provides $667,118 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 key products and services to be delivered under this 5-year award include: Exploring the role of the lysosomal hydrolase PLBD1 as an aminopeptidase that removes branched-chain amino acids...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) Biomedical Research and Research Training Program (CFDA 93.859) provides $125,000 to the Regents of the University of Michigan to conduct research on the metabolic regulation of pancreatic metaplasia and neoplasia. The key objectives are to: Mechanistically investigate how the loss of the ME1 enzyme contributes to acinar-to-ductal metaplasia (ADM) and pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN) formation...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Research Manpower program (CFDA 93.398) provides $118,912.00 to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to conduct research on the role of nutrient scavenging pathways, such as macropinocytosis and autophagy, in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) driven by oncogenic KRAS. The research aims to investigate how inhibition of the RAS-MAPK pathway and autophagy leads to upregulation of macropinocytosis, which...
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) awarded a 5-year, $654,197 Project Grant (CFDA 93.396 - Cancer Biology Research) to The General Hospital Corporation, doing business as Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), to conduct research on pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). The key objectives are to: Define the molecular subtypes of PDAC that respond to standard-of-care chemotherapies like FOLFIRINOX and gemcitabine + Abraxane. Elucidate how different stromal subtypes within patient-derived...
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) awarded a $1,396,152 Project Grant (CFDA 93.396 - Cancer Biology Research) to the University of Chicago to examine the role of the protein BNIP3 and mitophagy (selective autophagy of mitochondria) in muscle atrophy associated with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cancer cachexia. The research aims to: Investigate how BNIP3 promotes atrophy of muscle fibers by reducing mitochondrial mass, and how reconstitution of muscle fibers with different BNIP3...
This federal Project Grant award of $642,755.00 from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) under the Cancer Biology Research program (CFDA 93.396) supports research by The Institute For Cancer Research (ICR) to investigate the role of the protein Anoctamin 6 (ANO6) in disrupting lipid transfer from cancer-associated fibroblasts to pancreatic cancer cells. The key objectives are to: 1) Delineate how ANO6 activity is regulated in the interface between cancer cells and fibroblasts; 2) Determine how...
This Project Grant award of $523,480 from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.396 - Cancer Biology Research) to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Inc. (DFCI) supports research aimed at overcoming resistance to KRAS inhibitor therapies in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). The research plan seeks to define the iron metabolism and autophagy-dependent mechanisms of KRAS inhibitor resistance and identify novel combinatorial approaches targeting iron metabolism to overcome resistance. The...
The National Cancer Institute awarded a $128,199 Project Grant (CFDA 93.398 - Cancer Research Manpower) to the Regents of the University of Michigan on August 14, 2025. The grant supports research to investigate the role of the lipid kinase PIKFYVE in regulating metabolic homeostasis in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). The research aims to: 1) dissect the mechanism by which PIKFYVE regulates de novo lipid synthesis in PDAC, and 2) determine the efficacy of combining PIKFYVE inhibition with inhibition of the KRAS-MAPK oncogenic signaling pathway. The goal is to establish PIKFYVE inhibition as a promising therapeutic strategy for PDAC, which is known to rely on lysosome-dependent metabolic processes for survival in nutrient-disrupted tumor microenvironments.