This federal Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.396 - Cancer Biology Research) to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic is focused on understanding the role of melanocyte PD-L1 expression in modulating the immune response to UV-induced melanoma. The $635,946 award, with a performance period from July 2024 to June 2029, will support research using an autochthonous mouse melanoma model to investigate how UV radiation-induced interferon-I signaling and tumor inflammatory memory...
The National Cancer Institute (NCI), under the federal Cancer Biology Research program (CFDA 93.396), awarded a $217,863 Project Grant (R21CA297312) to the University of Colorado-Denver. The grant, effective from Dec 1, 2024 through Nov 30, 2026, supports research to compare natural killer (NK) cell profiles within melanoma tumors and pregnancy. The research aims to identify biomarkers that can predict risk of disease progression and response to immune-checkpoint blockade therapy for melanoma...
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,...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.395 - Cancer Treatment Research) to the University of Pittsburgh aims to investigate how immune checkpoint inhibitor-associated bacteria can modulate tumor immunity and improve the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapies in treating melanoma. The $636,222 grant, awarded on April 1, 2025, with a completion date of March 31, 2030, will support research to: 1) test whether ICI-associated bacteria can...
This Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.395 - Cancer Treatment Research) for $1,419,108 will support research to advance the understanding of how a novel neoadjuvant therapy impacts the immune system in patients with solid tumors, using refractory melanoma as a model. The research, led by Emory University, will use surgical tissue specimens from a clinical trial to gain insights into how blocking the SEMA4D signaling pathway in combination with immune checkpoint...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), under the Cancer Treatment Research program (CFDA 93.395), provides $198,103 to New York University School of Medicine to investigate the role of the immune microenvironment in melanoma bone metastasis. The project aims to elucidate the mechanisms by which melanoma cells infiltrate and modify the bone microenvironment, and how they communicate with immune cells, in order to improve understanding of melanoma bone disease...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.395 - Cancer Treatment Research) provides $602,881 to Duke University to develop novel immunotherapies using optimized tumor cell-penetrating antibodies. The primary objective is to translate these tumor cell-penetrating antibodies, which have demonstrated the ability to neutralize common oncogenic mutations like KRASG12D and control tumor growth, into the clinic. The research aims to elucidate the mechanisms...
This Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.398 - Cancer Research Manpower) provides $108,512.00 to Emory University to investigate the role of the inducible costimulatory molecule (ICOS) in improving adoptive T cell transfer (ACT) therapies for melanoma. The research aims to study how ICOS signaling influences the formation of resident memory T cells and enhance the durability and persistence of anti-tumor T cells. This work seeks to provide fundamental insights that...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.396 - Cancer Biology Research) provides $496,391 to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to conduct research on manipulating lipid metabolism to reverse immune dysfunction in solid cancers. The research aims to discover how the tumor microenvironment impairs the metabolic function of tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cells, and test whether restricting the enzyme acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) can rewire T cell lipid...
This Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.398 Cancer Research Manpower) provides $124,134 to Yale University to conduct research on investigating the mechanisms of pathogenesis and treatment response in immune checkpoint inhibitor-induced colitis. The research aims to: 1) expand a single-patient study to characterize immune phenotypes and T cell receptor repertoire shifts in colon tissue before and after treatment with infliximab, and 2) optimize a novel animal model...
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 the melanoma tumor microenvironment, the project seeks to inform the development of novel combination treatment strategies that could improve outcomes for the majority of ICI non-responders. The award period runs from December 2024 to June 2026.