This Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) under the Cancer Cause and Prevention Research program (CFDA 93.393) provides $581,381 to the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research to investigate the role of microhomology-mediated end-joining (MMEJ) in mitosis and its impact on drug resistance. The research aims to better understand DNA damage repair pathways and how they contribute to genomic instability and cancer development, with the goal of informing more...
This Project Grant award of $487,393.00 from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) under the Cancer Cause and Prevention Research (CFDA 93.393) program supports research on backup DNA repair mechanisms in homologous recombination deficient (HRD) cancers. The research aims to determine the role of key proteins like RAD52, HELQ, and POLQ in backup double-strand break repair pathways when the primary homologous recombination pathway is inactivated in certain cancer types. The goal is to identify...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.395 Cancer Treatment Research) provides $205,700 to the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research to conduct research aimed at understanding and overcoming rapid resistance to targeted therapies in colorectal cancer. The research will evaluate how intrinsic tumor features contribute to the development of resistance, and test a novel combination approach of DNA repair inhibition and targeted therapy to prevent...
The Project Grant award R35CA293978, provided by the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.393 Cancer Cause and Prevention Research), supports research to identify the mechanisms driving rapid evolution of cancer genomes. The $942,442 award to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Inc. (DFCI) in Boston, MA will fund investigations into two catastrophic mutational processes in cancer, chromothripsis and chromoplexy. The research aims to better understand the mechanisms of chromosome fragmentation, DNA...
This Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), under the federal Cancer Cause and Prevention Research program (CFDA 93.393), provides $541,682 to The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York for a 5-year period from July 3, 2024 to June 30, 2029. The project aims to better understand the mechanisms responsible for the assembly of DNA repair domains in cancer cells and evaluate the consequences of these domains following treatment with chemotherapeutic drugs....
The National Cancer Institute awarded a $218,068 Project Grant under the Cancer Research Manpower (CFDA 93.398) program to the Scripps Research Institute in California. The purpose of this 18-month award, effective September 26, 2024, is to elucidate the molecular mechanism of microhomology-mediated end joining (MMEJ) by DNA polymerase theta (POLTh), a key player in this error-prone DNA double-strand break repair pathway. The research aims to define the relationship between POLTh and MMEJ DNA...
The National Cancer Institute (NCI), under the federal Cancer Treatment Research program (CFDA 93.395), awarded a $680,507 Project Grant to The Regents of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) with a project period from Apr 1, 2025 to Mar 31, 2030. The goal of this project is to elucidate mechanisms of cancer persister cell rewiring and identify druggable targets to eradicate persistence in KRAS-mutant non-small cell lung cancer. The key products and services to be delivered under...
This federal Project Grant award of $2,808,108.00, provided by the Defense Health Agency under the Military Medical Research and Development program (CFDA 12.420), supports research conducted by the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research to investigate the role of clonal hematopoiesis in therapeutic resistance and metastatic relapse in breast cancer. The award period extends from March 1, 2024 to February 29, 2028. Through this funding, the Sloan-Kettering Institute will explore the...
The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) awarded a $445,000 Project Grant under the Biomedical Research and Research Training (CFDA 93.859) federal grant program to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Inc. (DFCI) in Boston, Massachusetts. The grant supports research to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of DNA double-strand break repair by homologous recombination, a high-fidelity DNA repair pathway that is critical for suppressing cancer development. Over the 5-year project...
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) awarded a $398,282 Project Grant (CFDA 93.396 - Cancer Biology Research) to the University of Houston System on April 18, 2025. The grant aims to evaluate the role of metabolism in persister cell survival in mammalian cell populations. Persister cells are a small fraction of quiescent cells in a tumor that exhibit temporary tolerance to drugs, which can lead to tumor relapse. The research project will use a combination of experimental data and mathematical...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.398 - Cancer Research Manpower) provides $238,722 to the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research to investigate the role of mutagenic DNA repair in the persistence of cancer cells. The key objectives are to:
Investigate persistence in response to PARP inhibitor treatment of BRCA1/2 cancer cells
Examine mechanisms of mutagenic DNA repair in persister colorectal cancer cells
Use high-content microscopy to determine a morphological signature of persistence
This research aims to improve understanding of how cellular stress induced by anti-cancer drugs can rewire DNA repair pathways in persister cancer cells, increasing their reliance on error-prone repair mechanisms like microhomology-mediated end joining (MMEJ). The findings could identify potential therapeutic targets, particularly regulators of MMEJ, to reduce persistence-driven acquired drug resistance and cancer relapse. The award period runs from August 2025 through April 2028.