This Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.395 - Cancer Treatment Research) provides $415,000.00 to Mayo Clinic to conduct research aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) immunotherapy for renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The project seeks to demonstrate that disrupting the ubiquitination or phosphorylation of the RIPK1 protein in RCC tumor cells can increase their susceptibility to killing by T cells in a TNF-dependent manner, thereby...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.398 - Cancer Research Manpower) provides $312,892.00 to Duke University to study the role of type 3 innate lymphoid cells (ILC3s) in regulating the melanoma tumor microenvironment. The research aims to better understand how ILC3s, which can create immunosuppressive environments, impact the effectiveness of immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy for advanced melanoma patients. By defining the function of ILC3s in...
This Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.396 - Cancer Biology Research) provides $563,233 to The Medical University of South Carolina to investigate strategies for overcoming immunosuppression and improving adoptive T cell therapy for cancer treatment. The key focus is on understanding how the sphingosine kinase 2 (SPHK2) and sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) axis regulates the suppressive function of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) in the tumor microenvironment....
This Project Grant award of $219,491 from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.395 Cancer Treatment Research) aims to investigate the epigenetic mechanisms by which the enzyme SIRT6 regulates T cell metabolism and immune functions within the tumor microenvironment. The key objectives are to understand how SIRT6 epigenetically represses glycolytic gene transcription in tumor-infiltrating T cells, leading to impaired anti-tumor immune responses. The research will employ in vitro and in vivo...
This $674,996 Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.396 - Cancer Biology Research) supports research by the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) to determine if targeting the PSGL-1 checkpoint inhibitor can promote the development and/or maintenance of CD8+ T cells essential for anti-tumor responses to PD-1 immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy. The key objectives are to evaluate if PSGL-1 blockade can generate or sustain tumor-specific...
This Project Grant award of $163,296 from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.398 Cancer Research Manpower) supports research to determine how the cytokine IL-27 regulates the anti-tumor activity of cytotoxic CD8+ T cells. The overarching goals are to: 1) define the mechanisms by which IL-27 promotes CD8+ T cell cytotoxicity against tumors, and 2) determine the mechanisms regulating IL-27 production and whether therapeutic IL-27 can improve tumor immunity. Key proposed activities include...
This federal Project Grant award, provided by the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.396 Cancer Biology Research) to The Jackson Laboratory, aims to discover host genetic elements affecting response to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) for cancer treatment. The $754,511 award, granted on December 13, 2024, will fund a 5-year research project to map genetic factors that influence anti-tumor response to ICI therapy, using mouse models and in vitro micro-organosphere platforms. The research...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.398 - Cancer Research Manpower) provides $113,937 to the Regents of the University of Minnesota to conduct research aimed at leveraging "bystander" T cells for new cancer immunotherapies. The key objectives are to: 1) identify mechanisms of bystander T cell activation and cytotoxicity that can be harnessed for tumor killing, 2) overcome tumor-intrinsic regulatory mechanisms that inhibit bystander activation,...
This Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.398 Cancer Research Manpower) provides $293,369 to Duke University to conduct research on mechanisms of macrophage-mediated immune evasion in residual tumors. The research aims to uncover potential strategies to target and engineer the immune-mediated clearance of residual tumor cells that can lead to cancer relapse, even after initial response to oncogene-targeted therapies. The award period runs from Aug 1, 2024 to Mar 31,...
The National Cancer Institute awarded a $153,348 Project Grant (CFDA 93.398 - Cancer Research Manpower) to The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, Health Sciences Division, for the project "Dissecting the Impact of Genomic Variants on Hallmarks of T Cell Anti-Tumor Activity". The project aims to perform in-depth mechanistic and in vivo functional studies of single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) in genes that can enhance T cell immunotherapy, including evaluating...
This Project Grant award of $340,822 from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) under the Cancer Research Manpower program (CFDA 93.398) will support research to characterize the role of the DUSP2 gene in regulating CD8+ T cell responses to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy. The research aims to 1) determine the impact of DUSP2 expression in CD8+ T cells on ICB response, and 2) elucidate the regulatory mechanisms of DUSP2 transcription and downstream signaling pathways in CD8+ T cells. The project will utilize in vivo mouse models and in vitro analyses of human CD8+ T cells to uncover DUSP2's mechanistic role in modulating ICB efficacy, with the goal of identifying potential therapeutic targets to improve ICB response rates in cancer patients. The award period runs from July 2024 to March 2026 and will be conducted by the Mayo Clinic, a leading non-profit academic medical center.