Pilot Awards Program

The Team Science Award aims to stimulate the development of high-quality, multi-investigator (minimum of three) program project grants that will move forward to extramurally funded grant awards. Projects with translational potential are encouraged, but not mandatory. Inter-programmatic and inter-institutional teams are also highly encouraged.

Cancer relevant research from all areas of science are invited to apply. Collaborations between researchers who propose to study topics related to understanding or addressing cancer disparities, breast cancer, prostate cancer, or sarcoma will be prioritized, though proposals involving all cancer types are eligible. Proposals that utilize MCW CC Shared Resources are encouraged.

Applicants are highly encouraged to present their Specific Aims at the Cancer Research Forum on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025.

Budget: Up to $150,000 per year up to two years.

Deadlines:

• RFA Release: Jan. 15, 2025
• LOI Due: Feb. 15, 2025
• Application Due: April 1, 2025
• Award Begins: Award notifications will be made after peer review and Board approval, near the beginning of June 2025. The start date will be on or after 07/01/2025.

View the Team Science Award RFA for full details and instructions. (PDF)

The MCW Cancer Center recognizes that Investigator-initiated Trials (IITs) represent the apex of academic cancer research innovation, as they help develop new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer and provide participating patients with access to the most advanced treatments. In line with this vision, the scope of this pilot program is to encourage and support the development of an IIT or innovative correlative studies that capitalize on an already funded trial.

Researchers proposing relevant projects from all areas of science are invited to apply to this RFA. Priority will be given to multi-disciplinary collaborations between clinical scientists, basic or translational scientists, and population science researchers who propose to study topics related to understanding or addressing cancer disparities. Applications that propose correlative studies, especially those that utilize MCWCC Shared Resources, are encouraged.

Budget: Up to $150,000 for two years.

Deadlines:

• RFA Release: Jan. 15, 2025
• LOI Due: Feb. 15, 2025
• Application Due: April 15, 2025
• Award Begins: Award notifications will be made after peer review and Director's Council approval, near the beginning of June 2025.

View the Clinical Concept Award RFA for full details and instructions. (PDF)

The purpose of the Idea award is to stimulate the development of high-quality, innovative cancer research projects that will move forward to extramurally funded projects. Idea awards provide early funding support for high-risk, high-payoff research for which external grants are difficult to obtain.

Priority Areas
Faculty members with cancer relevant research from all areas of science are invited to apply. Collaborations between basic/translational/clinical science and population science researchers who propose to study topics related to understanding or addressing cancer disparities will be given priority. Proposals that utilize MCW Cancer Center Shared Resources are encouraged.

Budget: $50,000 for one year without the option to renew.

Deadlines:

• RFA Release: July 15, 2024
• LOI Due: Aug.15, 2024
• Applicants are highly encouraged to present their Specific Aims at the Cancer Research Forum: Aug. 22, 2024
• Application Due: 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 1, 2024
• Award Begins: The start date will be on or after Jan. 1, 2025, dependent on the status of any required human and animal studies protocol approvals, with the understanding that it will not take longer than three months post award notice.

Applications are now closed.

The purpose of the individual ACS-IRG Pilot Awards is to support the development of exceptional cancer-related research projects for junior faculty members who are in the process of establishing independent cancer research programs.

Priority Areas:
Studies targeting breast and prostate cancer and sarcoma will be prioritized, though proposals involving all cancer types are eligible. All areas of cancer research – basic, preclinical, prevention and control, population, epidemiological and psychosocial cancer research (including quality of life research) - will be considered for funding. Applications for novel clinical projects (such as improvements of diagnostics and screening as well as genetic studies to improve prediction by identifying and understanding how genes and illnesses may be related) and for community-based projects are encouraged in addition to basic science projects. Note: This mechanism does not provide support for interventional treatment clinical trials.

Budget: $40,000 for a one-year award period with a possibility of a one-year no-cost extension and supplemental funding for a second year based on progress in the initial award period.

Second-year Supplement: If awarded the ACS-IRG Pilot Award, PIs are eligible to apply for a $20,000 supplement from the Cancer Center, which is an extension to the initial one-year award.

Deadlines:

• RFA Release: Jan. 15, 2025
• LOI Due: Feb. 15, 2025
• Applicants are highly encouraged to present their Specific Aims at the Cancer Research Forum: Feb. 27, 2025
• Application Due: 11:59 p.m. on April 1, 2025
• Award Begins: On or after July 1, 2025

View the ACS Institutional Research Grant RFA for full details and instructions. (PDF)

Our Patient Project (OPP) is an important translational research element of the MCW Cancer Center-led Precision Oncology high-impact initiative that is expected to drive discovery over the next three years. The OPP has two goals: 1) To answer a significant unanswered question in the cancer research field or address a major challenge in clinical care by fully characterizing and analyzing samples from a discrete, clinically annotated cancer patient cohort; 2) To develop a rich experimental data set on patient samples annotated with high quality clinical data that can be leveraged by the Principal Investigator, study team, and MCWCC members to foster new multi-disciplinary collaborative research projects funded through extramural sources and that will lead to novel practice-changing cancer prevention and/or therapeutics.

For more information, contact MCWCCResearchPrograms@mcw.edu.

• New Trial Submission Form (PDF)
• Budget Template (XLSX)
• Form B Non Supplanting Attestation (DOCX)
• Form C ACS Pilot Research Grant Certification (PDF)
• Form D Return on Investment for Previous Pilot Awardees (DOCX)

For proposals that require or highly recommend a consultation with the Biostatistics Shared Resource prior to submission, please schedule the consultation by making an iLab request. The consultation should occur at least two weeks, preferably six weeks, in advance of the application deadline.

Submit a Biostatistics iLab request.

Support for faculty developing clinical studies is available through the Investigator-Initiated Trials Steering Committee that advises on concepts and protocols prior to review by the Scientific Review Committee.

Learn about the IITSC.

ACS-IRG Award

• Hui-Zi Chen, MD, PhD; Dept. of Medicine, Division of Hematology & Oncology; Unraveling the Role of E2F7-Regulated Gene Networks in Small Cell Lung Cancer Development
• Navonil De Sarkar, PhD; Dept. of Pathology, Division of Administration; Exploiting Synthetic Lethality: Inducing 'BRCAness' in Non-BRCA2 Deficient Cancers to Enhance PARP Inhibitor Responses
• Matthew Kudek, MD; Dept. of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology & Oncology; Dissecting the Role of Innate Lymphoid Cells in the Pathogenesis of Graft Versus Host Disease

Graduate Fellowship Award

• Josiah Murray, BS; Cohesin Haploinsufficiency Disrupts Polycomb Targeting in Hematopoiesis and Myeloid Leukemogenesis
• Maria Poimenidou, BA; Cryopreservation Effects on Energy Metabolism, Activation, and Differentiation of CAR-T Cells
• Anusha Rengarajan, B-Tech; Mechanistic Investigations of Oncogenic RAB35 Variants in Disrupting Epithelial Cell Polarity
• Sarah Rine, PhD; Institute for Health and Equity; Social Determinants of Cervical Cancer Prevention among Female Sex Workers and their Children in Kampala, Uganda 

Postdoctoral Fellowship Award

• Adhitya Ramamurthi, MD; Dept. of Surgery; Training an Oncology-Focused Large Language Model to Automate Data Extraction from Unstructured Clinical Cancer Data

ACS-IRG Award

• Kelly Rentscher, PhD; Dept. of Psychiatry & Behavioral Medicine; Socioenvironmental Disparities and Accelerated Aging in CAR T Cell Therapy Recipients 

Clinical Trial Concept Award

• Guru Subramanian Guru Murthy, MD, MS; Dept. of Medicine, Division of Hematology & Oncology; Phase I Study of Iadademstat with Azacitidine in Patients with Myelodysplastic Syndrome

Idea Award

• Pradeep Chaluvally-Raghavan, PhD; Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Research and Advanced Education; RBMS1-mediated Lineage Transition in Breast Cancer
• Chun Liu, PhD; Dept. of Physiology; Elucidating the Mechanisms of Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor-Induced Cardiotoxicity through Heart Organoids
• Daochun Sun, PhD; Dept. of Cell Biology, Neurobiology & Anatomy; Targeting NF1-associated Tumor Microenvironment by Lipid Nanoparticles

ACS-IRG Award

• Nikki Lytle, PhD; Dept. of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology; The Role of Therapy-induced Cell Plasticity in Second Primary Breast Cancers
• Mochamad Nataliansyah, MD, MPH, PhD; Dept. of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology; Estimating Care Attrition Risk and Outcomes of Patients with Pancreatic Cancer using CMS-SEER Data Linkage

Graduate Fellowship Award

• Omar Cortez-Toledo, BA; Elucidation of Microenvironmental Signals that Contribute to Pancreatic Cancer Metastasis
• Viren Shah, PhD; Computational Simulations of Network Dynamics and Response in CART Therapy
• Casey Zoss, BS; Discovery and Application of Iron and Angiogenic Biomarkers in Glioblastoma to Optimize Treatment with Gallium Maltolate

Idea Award

• Cecilia Hillard, PhD; Dept. of Pharmacology & Toxicology; Studies of Kynurenine Metabolites as a Link between Socioenvironmental Disparities and Poor Outcomes in CAR T Therapy
• Yongxia Wu, MD, PhD; Dept. of Microbiology & Immunology; Fli-1 Regulates CD8 T-Cell Response for Controlling Hematological Malignancies

ACS-IRG Award

• Whitney Morelli, PhD; Dept. of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation; Development of a Patient-Centered, Personalized Physical Activity Program to Reduce Fatigue in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Patients Taking Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors

Clinical Trial Concept Award

• Jonathan Thompson, MD; Dept. of Medicine; Division of Hematology & Oncology; Utilizing Radiotherapy to Delay Resistance to Targeted Therapies for Metastatic, Driver-mutated Non-small Cell Lung Cancer
• Joseph Zenga, MD; Dept. of Otolaryngology; Hypofractionated Pre-operative Radiation for Head and Neck Cancer (HyPR-HN)

Idea Award

• Jong-In Park, PhD; Dept. of Biochemistry; Biochemical Modifications of ISCU Regulated ERK1/2

ACS-IRG Award

• Rachel Cusatis, PhD; Dept. of Medicine, Division of Hematology & Oncology; Pilot Study of the VitalPRO: A Remote Monitoring System of Patient Reported Outcomes and Vital Signs in Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell Outpatient Care
• Jing Dong, PhD; Dept. of Medicine, Division of Hematology & Oncology; Landscape of Pathogenic Germline Variants in Multiple Myeloma and Its Precursor in African Americans
• Thomas McFall, PhD; Dept. of Biochemistry; Quantitative Systems Approach to Overcoming Innate Resistance to KRAS G1C Inhibitors in Colorectal and Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Clinical Trial Concept Award

• John Charlson, MD; Dept. of Medicine, Division of Hematology & Oncology; Sarcoma Biopsy Tissue Banking
• Liliana Pezzin, PhD, JD; Dept. of Institute of Health & Equity, Division of Epidemiology; Understanding Real World Effects of Breast Cancer and its Treatment on Cognitive Functioning: a Longitudinal, Nationally Representative Study
• Wael Saber, MD, MS; Dept. of Medicine, Division of Hematology & Oncology; Soluble Urokinase-type plasminogen activator as a biomarker of Stage 3 Acute Kidney Injury in patients undergoing Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation (HCT)
• Nirav Shah, MD; Dept. of Medicine; Division of Hematology & Oncology; Triple CAR
• Joseph Zenga, MD; Dept. of Otolaryngology; Investigating the SDF-1/CXCR4 Pathway in Clinical Head and Neck Cancer and Humanized Patient-Derived Xenografts

Graduate Fellowship Award

• Karina Bursch, BS; PBRM1 Missense Mutations in ccRCC Vascular Signaling
• Alfredo Colina, BA; Biological Mechanisms and Immune Signatures Driving Antitumor CAR-T Cell Responses in Patients with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
• Olivia Franklin, BS; Defining the Role of GATA4 in Esophageal Diseases 

Postdoctoral Fellowship Award

• Jasmine George, PhD; Dept. of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Division of Research & Advanced Education; Chemoresistance Mechanism Orchestrated through FXR1 in Ovarian Cancer

Idea Award

• Pradeep Chaluvally-Raghavan, PhD; Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Division of Research and Advanced Education; Role of Oncogenic Adaptations
• Vera Tarakanova, PhD; Dept. of Microbiology & Immunology; The Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde Role of Interferon Regulatory Factor 3 During Cancer-associated Virus Infection

Team Science Award

• Siegfried Janz, MD; Dept. of Medicine, Division of Hematology & Oncology; Leveraging the Biology of Cancer Health Disparities to Improve Outcomes in Multiple Myeloma

ACS-IRG

• Sunila Pradeep, PhD; Dept. of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Division of Research & Advanced Education; Harnessing PD-L1 Expression in Ovarian Cancer
• John Pulikkan, PhD; Dept. of Cell Biology, Neurobiology & Anatomy; SMARCA4 as a Novel Target in Acute Myeloid Leukemia with CEBPA Mutations

Clinical Trial Concept Award

• Jennifer Connelly, MD; Dept. of Neurology; A Phase 1 Clinical Trial of Oral Gallium Maltolate for the Treatment of Relapsed or Refractory Glioblastoma