MENUNew Research Grants
Several new research grants greater than $100,000 were awarded to University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center researchers in November. Highlights include:
NCI Awards
Anna Lok, MD, Grace Su, MD, and Thomas Wang, MD, PhD were awarded a NCI U01 for “Novel Strategies to Improve Liver Cancer Surveillance Uptake and Early Detection” for $3.4M.
Deepak Nagrath, PhD was awarded a NCI R01 for “Targeting Stromal Influences on Glutamine Addiction in Ovarian Cancer” for $2.4M.
Steven Chinn, MD, MPH was awarded a NCI K08 for “Integrated Analysis of Germline and Somatic Mutations in Young, Low-Risk and Older, High-Risk Oral Cavity Cancer” for $882k.
Other Awards >$100K
Russell Ryan, MD, was awarded $200K from the V Foundation for Cancer Research for “ Targeting BCL6 regulatory elements in “enhancer hijacking” rearrangements”.
Sung Choi, MD, was awarded $100K from Hyundai Hope on Wheels for “Translational Research in Graft-Versus-Host Disease (GVHD)”.
Several new research grants greater than $100,000 were awarded to University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center researchers in October. Highlights included:
NCI Awards
Rafael Meza, PhD, was awarded a NCI U54 for “Center for the Assessment of the Public Health Impact of Tobacco Regulations” for $17.6M.
Arul Chinnaiyan, MD, PhD, was awarded a NCI R35 for “Exploring Precision Oncology: From Gene Fusions to lncRNAs” for $6.5M.
Maria Castro, PhD & Beth Lawlor, MD, PhD, successfully renewed the “Cancer Biology Training Program” T32 for $1.6M.
Yaqing Zhang, PhD, was awarded a R50 for “Targeting the Immunosuppressive Tumor Microenvironment in Pancreatic Cancer” for $331k.
David Lubman, PhD & Jianhui Zhu, PhD, was awarded a R50 for “Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers for Early Cancer Detection Using Mass Spectrometry” for $315k.
Other NIH Awards
Gary Hammer, MD, PhD, successfully renewed his R01 “Mechanisms of Adrenal Differentiation” for $1.9M.
Other Awards >$100k
Costas Lyssiotis, PhD, was awarded $792K from the American Cancer Society for “Intratumoral metabolic crosstalk mechanisms in pancreatic cancer”.
Venkateshwar Keshamouni, PhD, was awarded $100K from the American Lung Association for “NK cell-mediated Immunotherapy against Lung Cancer”.
CCTS Awards
Dr. Jing (Christine) Ye-2018.110-$45,000-Phase I/II clinical trial of venetoclax (ABT-199) in combination with ixazomib and dexamethasone for patients with relapsed multiple myeloma
Dr. Vaibhav Sahai-2018.044-$303,307- Phase II Multi-Center Study of PARP inhibitor Rucaparib in Combination with Anti-PD-1 Antibody Nivolumab in Patients with Advanced or Metastatic Biliary Tract Cancer Following Platinum Therapy.
Dr. Tycel Phillips-2018.005-$271,269- Phase I multi-site study evaluating the MTD, safety and efficacy of the combination venetoclax, lenalidomide and rituximab in patients with previously untreated mantle cell lymphoma.
Several new research grants greater than $100,000 were awarded to University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center researchers in September. Highlights included:
NCI Awards
Issam El Naqa, PhD, was awarded a NCI R37 for “Combined Radiation Acoustics and Ultrasound Imaging for Real-Time Guidance in Radiotherapy” for $2.4M.
Alla Karnovsky, PhD, was awarded a NCI U01 for “Methods and Tools for Integrative Functional Enrichment Analysis of Metabolomics Data” for $1.7M.
Kathryn Luker, PhD, was awarded a NCI R50 for “Specialist in Multi-Scale Molecular Imaging of Tumor Environments” for $982K.
Sami Malek, MD, was awarded a NCI R01 for “Advancing Biological and Clinical Applications of Genomic Minimal Residual Disease Detection in AML” for $2.1M.
Inbal Nahum-Shani, PhD, was awarded a NCI U01 for “Novel use of mHealth Data to Identify States of Vulnerability and Receptivity to JITAIs” for $2.5M.
Jiaqi Shi, MD, PhD, was awarded a NCI K08 for “Linking Epigenetic Regulation and TGF-ß Signaling in Pancreatic Cancer” for $744K.
Muneesh Tewari, PhD, was awarded a NCI R33 for “Optimization and Validation of Single-Molecule Kinetic Fingerprinting Technology for Rapid, Ultra-Specific Detection of Cancer Mutations” for $1.2M.
Shaomeng Wang, PhD, was awarded a NCI R01 subk for “Activating p53 for Colorectal Cancer Prevention” for $326K.
NIH Awards
Lesly Dossett, MD, MPH, was awarded a NIH K08 for “Error Identification Between Health Systems—A Patient Safety Blind Spot” for $621K.
Jun Hee Lee, PhD, was awarded a NIH R01 for “Protein Inclusions in Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis” for $1M.
Yu Lei, DDS, PhD, was awarded a NIH R03 for “Development of a Prognostic Compound Immunoscore for Head and Neck Cancer” for $338K.
David Lombard, MD, PhD, was awarded a NIH R01 for “Regulation of One Carbon Metabolism and Epigenetics by SIRT5” for $1.1M.
Alexey Nesvizhskii, PhD, was awarded a NIH R01 for “Computational Tools for Mass Spectometry-Based Interactome Data” (competitive renewal) for $1.3M.
Linda Samuelson, PhD, was awarded a NIH R01 for “Mechanisms of Intestinal Stem Cell Injury and Repair” for $1.7M.
DoD Awards
Howard Crawford, PhD, was awarded a DoD subk for “Disrupting Collagen-Mediated Pro-Survival Pathways in Pancreatic Cancer” for $258K.
Mohammad Fallahi-Sichani, PhD, was awarded DoD funding for “Defining and Targeting Novel Epigenetic Vulnerabilities in Heterogeneous Drug-Resistant Melanomas” in the amount of $536K.
David Lombard, MD, PhD, was awarded DoD funding for “SIRT5, a Novel Therapeutic Target for NF1-Associated MPNST” in the amount of $897K.
Yatrik Shah, PhD, was awarded DoD funding for “The Role of NF-kappa B2 Pathway in Colon Cancer” in the amount of $624K.
Other Awards >$100K
Charles Mayo, PhD, was awarded $300K from Varian Medical Systems, Inc. for “ Integration of Statistical DVH metrics into treatment plan optimization”.
Shaomeng Wang, PhD, was awarded $1.2M from Oncopia Therapeutics, LLC for “Development of protein degraders”.
Sriram Venneti, MD, PhD, was awarded $250K from Alex's Lemonade Stand for “Targeting Glutamine Addiction in Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Gliomas (DIPGs)”.
Breast Cancer Research Foundation- renewed awards $250K each
Debra Barton, PhD, RN, MS, “Enhancing Sexual Health in Female Cancer Survivors: Building a personalized biobehavioral intervention”.
Sofia Merajver, MD, PhD, “Targeting RhoC in Breast Cancer: Novel Drugs, Mathematical Models and Epidemiological Studies in North Africa” .
Lori Pierce, MD, “Breast Cancer Cell Sensitivity to Radiotherapy in The Presence of Targeted Therapies”.
James Rae, PhD, “Pharmacogenomic Predictors of Breast Cancer Endocrine Response”.
Max Wicha, MD, “Molecular Analysis of Breast Cancer Stem Cells at Single Cell Resolution”.
2018.052-Alva-$117,617-ERICA: Phase 2 Trial of ESK981 in Combination with Nivolumab in Patients with Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma
2018.086-Morikawa-$19,500-Randomized Phase II Trial to Evaluate Alisertib Alone or Combined with Fulvestrant for Women with Advanced, Endocrine-resistant Breast Cancer
2018.073-Worden-$21,685-A phase I/II study of MLN0128 in metastatic anaplastic thyroid cancer.
2017.141-Wilcox-$122,614-Phase I/II Study of Ixazomib and Romidepsin in Relapsed/ Refractory Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma (PTCL)
Several new research grants greater than $100,000 were awarded to University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center researchers in August. Highlights included:
Frank Cackowski, MD, PhD, was awarded a PCF Young Investigator Award for “Targeting the Hippo Pathway in Advanced Prostate Cancer” for $225K.
Steven Katz, MD, MPH, was awarded a NCI R01 sub-k from Stanford University “Genetic Testing, Treatment Use, and Mortality After Diagnosis of Breast and Ovarian Cancer: The Georgia-California GeneLINK Initiative” for $930K.
David Lombard, MD, PhD, was awarded a Prostate Cancer Research Program Idea Award with Special Focus for “Targeting the Menin-MLL1 Interaction in Melanoma” from the DoD for $624K.
Alison Mondul, PhD, was awarded a Prostate Cancer Research Program Idea Development Award for “Elucidating the Metabolomic Profile of Fatal Prostate Cancer” from the DoD for $923K.
Sethuramasundaram Pitchiaya, PhD, was awarded a PCF Young Investigator Award for “Unraveling Molecular Heterogeneities in Advanced Prostate Cancer at Single Cell Resolution” for $225K.
Simpa Salami, MD, MPH, was awarded a Prostate Cancer Research Program Physician Research Award for “Radiogenomic Characterization of Prostate Cancer: Distinguishing Aggressive from Indolent Disease” from the DoD for $811K.
Nicholas Szerlip, MD, was awarded a Prostate Cancer Research Program Idea Development Award for “The Impact of the Dura Mater on Prostate Spine Metastases” from the DoD for $473K.
Greg Thurber, PhD, was awarded an R35 for “Maximizing Antibody Drug Conjugate Efficacy through Multiple Mechanisms of Action” from the NIH for $1.6M.
Cancer Center Trial Support Awards:
Dr. Ajjai Alva-Awarded-$229,633-2018.050, IMPACT: Immunotherapy in Patients with Metastatic Cancers and CDK12 Mutations.
Dr. Daniel Spratt-Awarded $25,984-2018.084, Prostate oncologic therapy while ensuring neurovascular conservation (POTEN-C): a phase II randomized controlled trial of stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SAbR) with or without neurovascular sparing for erectile function preservation in localized prostate cancer.
July grant highlights:
Ajit Joglekar, PhD, was awarded an R35 for “Integrative Analyses of the Kinetochore and the Spindle Assembly Checkpoint” from the NIH for $2.4M.
Pavan Reddy, MD, renewed the T32 “Oncology Research Training Grant” with the NCI for $1.7M.
Richard Auchus, MD, PhD renewed his R01 “Activation of Androgen Biosynthesis and Drug Metabolism by Cytochrome b5” with the NIH for $1M.
Grace Chen, MD, PhD, was awarded a $526k from the DoD for “Role of Non-coding Small RNAs in Colorectal Cancer Progression”.
Sunny Wong, PhD, was awarded $368k from Leo Research Foundation for “Investigating the Tumor Suppressive Functions of Notch Signaling during Skin Cancer Initiation and Progression”.
Corey Speers, MD, PhD, was awarded a $200k Career Development Award from ASTRO for “Targeting Checkpoint Kinases for the more Effective Treatment of Radioresistant TNBC”.
Beata Chertok, PhD, was awarded $115k from St. Baldrick’s Foundation for “Microplatform for Spatio-temporal Immunotherapy of Pediatric Brain Tumors”.
Sarah Veatch, PhD, was awarded $112k from the American Cancer Society for “Targeting the CAR Membrane Microenvironment to Enhance Receptor Signaling”.
Elizabeth Lawlor, MD, PhD, was awarded a $100k research grant from St. Baldrick’s Foundation for “Defining the Role of the Ewing Sarcoma Secretome in Promotion of Metastasis”.
Jean-Francois Rual, PhD, was awarded a $100k research grant from St. Baldrick’s Foundation for “Characterization of the Role of L3MBTL3 in Medulloblastoma”.
Sundeep Kalantry, PhD, was awarded an R01 for “Investigating Novel Modes of Epigenetic Regulation Through the Polycomb Group” from the NIH for $2.1M.
Laura Buttitta, PhD, was awarded an R01 for “Chromatin remodeling at cell cycle exit” from the NIH for $1.6M.
Cancer Center Trials Support Award:
Dr. Nithya Ramnath-Awarded-$168,928-2018.033: A Phase I/II Multi-Site Study of Rucaparib and Pembrolizumab Maintenance Therapy in Stage IV Non-Squamous Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer after Initial Therapy with Carboplatin, Pemetrexed, and Pembrolizumab
June 2018 grant highlights
Weiping Zou, MD, PhD, was awarded a R01 for “Ovarian Cancer Epigenetics, Immunity and Therapy” from the NCI for $3.1M.
Beth Lawlor, MD, PhD, was awarded a R01 for “Investigations of Menin Function in Ewing Sarcoma” from the NCI for $2.2M.
Xing Fan, MD, PhD, was awarded a R01 for “Targeting Glioblastoma Stem Cells Through Epigenetic Reprogramming” from the NIH for $2.2M.
Beth Moore, PhD & Steven Kunkel, PhD, renewed their T32 for “Research Training in Experimental Immunology” with the NIH for $1.9M.
Ted Lawrence, MD, PhD, was awarded an S10 for “SARRP for Multimodality Image-Guided Stereotactic Irradiation” from the NIH for $600K.
Tomasz Cierpicki, PhD, was awarded a $600K Translational Research Program Award from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for “Targeting NSD1 Histone Methyltransferase in Pediatric Leukemia”.
Amit Pai, PharmD & Hebao Yuan, PhD, were awarded $551K from NanoMedicine Innovation Center LLC for “Formulation Based Paclitaxel Tumor and Tissue Localization by Mass Spectrometry Imaging in Non-Carrier Strain (FVB) and PyMT Transgenic Mouse Model of Breast Cancer”.
Anda-Alexandra Calinescu, MD, PhD, was awarded a R21 for “Engineering Stem Cells as Diagnostic and Therapeutic Agents for Glioblastoma” from the NIH for $415K.
Laurie McCauley, DDS, PhD, renewed her R01 for “Mechanisms of PTH Action in Bone” with the NIH for $156K.
Russell Ryan, MD, was awarded a $100K New Investigator Grant from the Leukemia Research Foundation for “Identifying Unique MYC Enhancer Dependencies in B-Lymphoblastic Leukemia”.
Chaun Zhou, PhD, was awarded a U01 for “Histopathology correlated quantitative analysis of lung nodules with LDCT for early detection of lung cancer” from the NCI for $2.3M.
J.Scott Roberts, PhD, was awarded a T32 for “University of Michigan Training Program in ELSI Research” from the NIH for $950k.
Chad Brenner, PhD, was awarded a $792k Research Scholar grant from the American Cancer Society for “Developing Combination Immunotherapies for Advanced Oropharyngeal HNSCC”.
Sunny Wong, PhD, was awarded a $792k Research Scholar grant from the American Cancer Society for “Mechanisms of Skin Cancer Response & Resistance to Anti-Hedgehog Inhibitors”.
Reshma Jagsi, MD, was awarded a $600k Komen Leadership grant from Susan G. Komen for the Cure for “PARP Inhibition and Radiotherapy for Inflammatory Breast Cancer”.
Grace Chen, MD, PhD, was awarded a $200k Department of Agriculture sub-k from Husson University for “Understanding the Role of Broccoli Sprout Bioactives and the Gut Microbiome in the Suppression of Colon Tumorigenesis”.
April, 2018 grant highlights
Shaomeng Wang, PhD, was awarded $3.4M from Ascentage Pharma Group Corporation, Ltd. for “Design and Development of New Anticancer Drugs”.
Alan Smrcka, PhD, was awarded an R35 for “Understanding and Manipulating Phospholipase C and G Protein βγ Subunit Signaling Networks” from the NIH for $2.6M.
Judith Leopold, PhD, was awarded an R01 for “Development of a Dual and Selective Small Molecule Inhibitor of EGFR and PI3 Kinase to Treat BRAF Mutant Colorectal Cancer” from the NCI for $2.3M.
Deneen Wellik, PhD, was awarded an R61 for “Hox Genes Regulate Functionally Distinct, Regionally Restricted MSC Populations” from the NIH for $772,433.
Mark Cohen, MD, was awarded a subk on an R01 for ”Optimization and Investigation of Cruentaren A Analogs” from the NIH/University of Notre Dame for $572,853.
Matthew Hall (Mentor: Lonnie Shea, PhD) was awarded an F32 for “Engineering Natural Killer Cell Homing and Activation at the Metastatic Niche” from the NCI for $186,426.
Deepak Nagrath, PhD, was awarded a subk on an R01 for ”Identification of USP13 as Therapeutic Target for Ovarian Cancer” from the NCI/Indiana University for $175,136.
Xiang Zhou, PhD, was awarded $205,788 from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative for “Computational Tools for Integrating Single Cell RNA Sequencing Studies with Genome-wide Association Studies”.
Stephen Gurczynski (Mentor: Bethany Moore, PhD) was awarded $156,000 from The Francis Family Foundation for “ILC and Granulocyte Regulation of IL-17-mediated Post-HSCT Lung Pathology”.
Indika Rajapakse, PhD, was awarded a subk for ” Computational Biology Platform Technology for Cellular Reprogramming” from the DOD/iReprogram, LLC for $131,500.
March, 2018 grant highlights
Andrew Muntean, PhD, was awarded an R01 for “The Role of the PAFc Subunit Cdc73 in Normal Hematopoiesis and Transformation’ from the NIH for $1,904,179.
Yu Leo Lei, DDS, PhD, was awarded an R01 for “Develop a Therapeutic Nano-Vaccine Against Head and Neck Cancer” from the NIH for $1,851,906.
Jeremy Taylor, PhD, was awarded (competitive renewal) a T32 for “Biostatistics Training in Cancer Research” from the NCI for $943,030.
Amit Pai, PharmD and Hebao Yuan, PhD, were awarded $360,674 from NanoMedicine Innovation Center LLC. for “Tumor and Tissue Localization of Doxorubicin and Liposomal-Doxorubicin Formulations in PyMT Transgenic and its Orthotopic Xenograft Mouse Models”.
Andrzej Dlugosz, MD, was awarded an R21 for “Molecular and Cellular Basis of Polyomarvirus-Associated Hair Follicle Dysplasia” from the NIH for $377,190.
Rajen Mody, MD, was awarded $195,000 from St. Baldrick’s Foundation for “Non-Coding RNA-Mediated Mechanisms of Alloimmunity”.
Eric Perkey (Mentor: Pavan Reddy, MD) was awarded an F30 for “New Roles for Secondary Lymphoid Organ Fibroblastic Stromal Cells in T Cell Alloimmunity” from the NIH for $161,434.
Rajen Mody, MD, was awarded $97,500 from St. Baldrick’s Foundation for “Metabolic reprogramming in pre-leukemic hematopoietic stem cells.”
Cancer Center Trials Support Awards:
Dr. Alva-UMCC 2017.155-Awarded $9,750- An Open Label, Multicenter, Single Arm Phase II Pilot Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Tolerability of the Novel mTOR Inhibitor, MLN0128 (TAK- 228), in Patients with Locally Advanced or Metastatic Transitional Cell Carcinoma of the Urothelial Tract whose Tumors Harbor a TSC1 and/or a TSC2 Mutation
Dr. Worden-UMCC 2017.003-Awarded $15,220 - Combination Targeted Therapy with Pembrolizumab and Lenvatinib in Progressive, Radioiodine-Refractory Differentiated Thyroid Cancers
Dr. Chugh-UMCC 2017.126-Awarded $51,933 - A Phase II Study of Epacadostat and Pembrolizumab in Patients with Imatinib-Refractory Advanced Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors
February, 2018 grant highlights:
Sung Choi, M.D., was awarded an ASH Bridge Grant Award for “A mobile health intervention to promote the positive aspects of caregiving in allogeneic HCT” from the American Society of Hematology for $150,000.
Stephen Gurczynski, Ph.D. (Mentor: Beth Moore, Ph.D.) was awarded a postdoc fellowship award for “ILC and granulocyte regulation of IL-17-mediated post-HSCT lung pathology” from the Francis Family Foundation for $156,000.
Henry Kuang (Mentor: Jiandie Lin, Ph.D.) was awarded an F30 for “Neuregulin-4 Signaling in Hepatocytes Defines an Endocrine Checkpoint for NASH and HCC Progression” from the NIH for $114,577.