Cancer Consortium awards $300,000 for pilot studies

The Fred Hutchinson/University of Washington Cancer Consortium has awarded $300,000 in grants to Consortium members and their collaborators for pilot projects that support cancer-related research in 2011. This is part of more than $700,000 in direct costs awarded this year for Consortium members’ pilot projects.
 
Consortium awardees and projects:

• Dr. Carla Grandori, Hutchinson Center, Human Biology Division, “Targeted Therapies for Ovarian Cancer.” Grandori will identify novel therapeutic strategies and rational targets for ovarian cancer that will constitute the basis for initiation of clinical trials utilizing MYC family members as biomarkers to stratify patient populations.
• Dr. Eduardo Mendez, University of Washington, “Preclinical Validation of Survival Kinases as Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC) Drug Targets.” Working with Dr. Chris Kemp, of the Center’s Human Biology Division, Mendez will pursue novel targeted therapies for HNSCC, improving specificity and diminishing side effects.
• Dr. Andrew Scharenberg, Seattle Children’s Research Institute, “High Efficiency T-cell Engineering for Cancer Immunotherapy.” Scharenberg will work collaboratively to develop methods for high efficiency engineering of allogeneic T-cells that will circumvent the limitation of graft-vs.-host immunoreactivity in patients.

Next pilot funding cycle early 2012

The next request for applications for Cancer Center Support Grant funded pilot projects will be released in early 2012. All members of the Cancer Consortium are eligible to apply.

Visit the Cancer Consortium website for additional information about membership criteria and upcoming award competitions.