Federal Project Grant Award Summary Virginia Commonwealth University received an $854,416 Project Grant award from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) under the Oral Diseases and Disorders Research program (CFDA 93.121) on August 12, 2025, with an ultimate completion date of May 31, 2030. The award funds research to develop and evaluate hFlagrP170, a novel immunostimulatory therapeutic agent designed to enhance treatment responsiveness in head and neck squamous...
Federal Grant Award Summary The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) awarded West Virginia University Research Corporation a $418,000 Project Grant on August 20, 2025, under the Oral Diseases and Disorders Research program (CFDA 93.121) to support research on ferroptosis-related therapeutic targets for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). The project, which runs through August 19, 2027, focuses on investigating CISD1 (mitoneet), an iron-sulfur...
Federal Grant Award Summary Virginia Commonwealth University received a $101,828 Project Grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) under the Oral Diseases and Disorders Research program (CFDA 93.121), awarded December 1, 2026, with completion targeted for May 9, 2028. The research focuses on the functional and structural characterization of phospholipase A2 (PLA2), specifically the PG1879 enzyme in Porphyromonas gingivalis, a keystone pathogen implicated in...
Federal Project Grant Award Summary Virginia Commonwealth University received a $310,500 Project Grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) under the Oral Diseases and Disorders Research program (CFDA 93.121), awarded on July 15, 2025, with completion scheduled for July 14, 2027. The grant supports comparative experimental evolution research examining gene essentiality differences between two oral streptococcal species: Streptococcus sanguinis and S. mutans....
Federal Grant Award Summary Virginia Commonwealth University received a $310,500 Project Grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research under the Oral Diseases and Disorders Research program (CFDA 93.121) awarded June 15, 2026, with completion expected June 14, 2027. This award supports a one-year research initiative investigating the role of nuclear bone morphogenetic protein 2 (NBMP2) in macrophage immunomodulation and its effects on periodontal regeneration and bone...
Federal Grant Award Summary The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research awarded a $308,223 Project Grant to The Leland Stanford Junior University on July 15, 2025, under the Oral Diseases and Disorders Research program (CFDA 93.121). This two-year award, with completion scheduled for July 14, 2027, supports research investigating how ACTL6A, a gene commonly amplified in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), contributes to metabolic reprogramming and cancer stem cell...
Federal Project Grant Award Summary The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) awarded the University of Pittsburgh a $1.9 million Project Grant on September 19, 2025, through the Oral Diseases and Disorders Research program (CFDA 93.121) to conduct a three-year research initiative examining head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) outcomes. The research will analyze high-dimensional genomic datasets from public databases using systems biology modeling to identify...
Federal Grant Award Summary The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) awarded H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute Hospital, Inc. a Project Grant of $1,428,797 under the Oral Diseases and Disorders Research program (CFDA 93.121) on September 8, 2025, with a completion date of May 31, 2030. This R01 project will develop and validate ultrasensitive liquid biopsy methodologies to detect circulating DNA methylation biomarkers for improved prognostic prediction...
Federal Grant Award Summary The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) awarded a $219,660 Project Grant to the Regents of the University of Michigan, effective January 1, 2029, under the Oral Diseases and Disorders Research program (CFDA 93.121). This research initiative, titled "Intercepting the Evolution of Pro-Tumoral Myeloid Cells During the Initiation of Oral Cancer," delivers preclinical research services focused on understanding the immunological...
Federal Grant Award Summary Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Inc. received a $3.74 million Project Grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) under the Oral Diseases and Disorders Research program (CFDA 93.121), awarded on August 21, 2025, with a completion date of August 20, 2029. The grant supports mechanistic research investigating the role of CCL5 chemokine in antigen-specific T cell responses within head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs)....
Federal Grant Award Summary
Virginia Commonwealth University received a $135,225 Project Grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) under the Oral Diseases and Disorders Research program (CFDA 93.121), awarded August 4, 2026, with completion targeted for August 3, 2028. The award supports research investigating the role of FOSL1 (FOS-like antigen-1)-mediated liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) in cisplatin resistance within head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). This research addresses a critical clinical need, as HNSCC represents the seventh most common cancer worldwide with over 890,000 annual cases, yet cisplatin resistance remains a major barrier to treatment efficacy and frequently leads to patient relapse.
The project will build upon preliminary findings demonstrating that FOSL1 is upregulated in cancer stem cells and facilitates cisplatin resistance by enhancing the cancer stem cell population in HNSCC mouse models. The research will explore mechanistic pathways through which FOSL1's intrinsically disordered regions enable phase separation with key regulatory proteins to establish super-enhancers that maintain expression of cancer stemness genes such as SNAI2, CD44, and FOSL1. The work combines basic and translational research methodologies to advance fundamental knowledge of oral and craniofacial disease biology and may inform novel therapeutic strategies to overcome chemotherapy resistance in head and neck cancer patients.