This Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), under the Cancer Research Manpower (CFDA 93.398) federal grant program, will support a clinical trial and correlative studies focused on improving CAR T-cell therapy for pediatric B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL). The award, totaling $289,458, will fund the following key products and services over the project period from Sep 1, 2024 to Aug 31, 2029: Conduct a Phase I clinical trial (MEMCAR19; NCT04881240) evaluating an...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.396 - Cancer Biology Research) provides $160,500.00 to Baylor College of Medicine to develop in vivo mouse models to investigate the role of caspase-2 as an essential gene in nucleophosmin-mutated acute myeloid leukemia (NPM1c+ AML). The research aims to determine the impact of caspase-2 loss on self-renewal of NPM1c+ myeloid cells, as well as how caspase-2 loss affects NPM1c+-associated myeloproliferative disease and...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.395 - Cancer Treatment Research) supports research aimed at understanding how different forms of cell death, particularly programmed necrosis, can alter the immune response and impact tumor growth. The $568,538 award to the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute Hospital, Inc. will fund a 5-year study to investigate the role of the cytokine interleukin-1 alpha in mediating immune suppression and promoting...
This $195,766 federal Project Grant, awarded on December 19, 2024 by the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.395 - Cancer Treatment Research), supports research at Yale University to develop a mechano-transduction platform for enhancing chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies for cancer immunotherapy. The key goals are to: 1) measure forces along immune receptors like the T-cell receptor and CAR using force sensors, and 2) engineer force transduction modules that can induce expression of...
This Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.395 - Cancer Treatment Research) aims to harness B cells after stem cell transplant to produce novel chimeric antigen receptor T-cells (CAR-Ts) for treating hematological malignancies. The $415,257 award to Duke University, a leading research institution, will fund research to clone antibody-producing B cells with tumor-binding potential after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The goal is to engineer less toxic and...
This $1,108,391.72 Project Grant awarded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) under the Cancer Treatment Research program (CFDA 93.395) supports research to define the most therapeutically relevant chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell subsets for treating large B cell lymphoma (LBCL) and overcome immune suppression mechanisms that limit CAR T cell efficacy. The funded project will use a systems biology approach to analyze patient data and pinpoint optimal CAR T cell characteristics for...
This Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.396 - Cancer Biology Research) will support research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to investigate how the tumor microenvironment impacts T cell metabolism and antitumor immunity. The $496,391 award, with a project period from December 2024 to November 2029, will fund experiments using genetic mouse models, patient tumor samples, and preclinical CAR-T cell models to determine if the enzyme acetyl-CoA...
This Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), under the Cancer Research Manpower (CFDA 93.398) program, provides $176,040 to The General Hospital Corporation (Massachusetts General Hospital) from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2027. The project aims to develop new strategies to engineer CAR-T cell therapies that can overcome the cancer cell glycocalyx barrier for improved immunotherapy, particularly for solid tumors like breast cancer and glioblastoma. Key objectives include...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.398 Cancer Research Manpower) in the amount of $121,857 aims to systematically investigate how anti-cancer drugs modulate T cells in the tumor microenvironment. The key objectives are to: Conduct in silico screening to identify anti-cancer drugs impacting T cell effector function, activation, stemness, and proliferation (Aim I). Perform single-cell CRISPR knockout screening to determine anti-cancer drug targets...
This Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.398 Cancer Research Manpower) provides $239,991 to The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania to conduct research aimed at deciphering and modulating chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell persistence and overcoming CAR T cell exhaustion. The key products and services to be delivered under this award include: Development of novel split-engineered CRISPR/dCAS9-guided epigenome editors that can inducibly activate target...
This Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.398 - Cancer Research Manpower) provides $222,432 to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Inc. to investigate the role of the protein Caspase-8 in cancer, anti-cancer immunity, and CAR-T cell function. The project aims to understand how Caspase-8 in cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment influences anti-cancer immunity and CAR-T cell efficacy. It will involve comparing relevant murine cancer cell lines with and without Caspase-8 to assess differences in proliferation, inflammatory signaling, resistance to CAR-T cell killing, tumor growth, and immune cell infiltration. Additionally, the project will examine how Caspase-8 in the tumor microenvironment alters macrophage polarization, tumor growth, immune infiltration, and the ability of CAR-T cells to induce cancer cell death. The award period runs from Dec 18, 2024 to Apr 30, 2026.