Cancer researchers pivot to fight COVID-19

Media contact: Nicole Fawcett, 734-764-2220 |  Patients may contact Cancer AnswerLine, 800-865-1125

Rogel Cancer Center members have received grant funding for 10 projects related to COVID-19.

Some are using their basic science acumen or public health perspective to better understand the virus and its implications. Others focus on the coronavirus’s impact on the care of people with cancer.

Here’s a snapshot at their projects:

• Janet Smith, Ph.D., COVID-19: Proteins for COVID-19 serological test, $348,000 from Silicon Valley Community Foundation
• Lawrence An, M.D., COVID-19 Expanded Telecare at Michigan Medicine, $649,000 from the Federal Communications Commission
• Joerg Lahann, Ph.D., COVID-19: Synthetic Gene Therapy for Enduring Immunoprotection from SARS CoV-2, $750,000 from Intergalactic Therapeutics, Inc.
• Richard Gonzalez, Ph.D., COVID-19 E=MC2: P&G Caregiving Tools for Social Isolation, $100,000 from Procter & Gamble Co.
• Kristen Pettit, M.D., A Phase 3 Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled, Multicenter Study of Pacritinib Plus Standard of Care Versus Placebo and Standard of Care in Cancer Patients with Moderate COVID-19, $195,676 from CTI BioPharma Corp.
• Anna Lok, M.D., COVID-19 CTSU_ACD: Antibody-positive control samples, $25,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency
• Jeffrey Curtis, M.D., Novartis COVID-19 Clinical Trials, $58,410 from Novartis AG
• Lawrence An, M.D., Investigating the Association between Smoking Status and COVID-19 Outcomes: Collecting Data from Health Systems Affiliated with the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Center Cessation Initiative (C3I), $6,450, National Institutes of Health
• Matthias Kretzler, M.D., Protecting epithelial cell organ from COVID-19 attack, $155,650 from the American Foundation for AIDS Research
• Arul Chinnaiyan, M.D., Ph.D., COVID-19 Targeting TMPRSS2 expression as a therapy for coronavirus infection and replication, $390,000 from the National Cancer Institute

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