Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences (Henry Ford + MSU) has named the pilot grant recipients for the 2023 Cancer Seed Funding Program. The funding program has awarded 20 pilot grants of up to $25,000 each.
"We are very excited to move forward with our second year of funding for collaborative cancer research seed grants bringing together talented investigators from Henry Ford Health and MSU,” said Ben Movsas, M.D., Henry Ford + MSU cancer committee chair, Henry Ford Cancer medical director and radiation oncology chair. “We are particularly pleased that ~40% of these pilot grants address cancer disparities and many of the awardees are new investigators.”
Each awarded pilot grant includes a principal investigator from Henry Ford Health and a principal investigator from Michigan State University. Nearly $1 million in grants during the 2022 Cancer Seed Funding Program addressed issues ranging from how to reduce lung cancer screening disparities in metro Detroit to examining geographic, racial and ethnic disparities in access and utilization of targeted drug therapies and genetic testing in breast cancer.
"Through these awards, we are actively forging a partnership to cultivate collaboration and pioneer novel pathways for cancer research, with the ultimate aim to blaze a path to innovative clinical trials," said Jeff MacKeigan, Ph.D., Henry Ford + MSU cancer committee member and MSU College of Human Medicine assistant dean for research.
The Henry Ford + MSU cancer committee will announce later in 2023 the 2023 Cancer Seed Funding Program integration grants.
Pilot Grants
The 20 pilot grants selected for the 2023 Cancer Seed Funding Program are:
- Biomimetic Prussian Blue Nanohybrids for Glioblastoma Treatment
Principal Investigators: Tavarekere N. Nagaraja, Ph.D. (Henry Ford Health) and Taeho Kim, Ph.D. (MSU) - Synthesis and Radiation Radioprotection Studies of UTS-1401 Analogs.
Principal Investigators: Fred Valeriote, Ph.D. (Henry Ford Health) and Edmund Ellsworth, Ph.D. (MSU) - Multi-Dimensional Analysis of Treatment Outcomes for Patients with Head and Neck Cancer with Focus on Voice
Principal Investigators: Samantha H. Tam, M.D. (Henry Ford Health) and Maryam Naghibolhosseini, Ph.D. (MSU) - Examining the Metabolic Link between Obesity and Chemoresistance in Ovarian Cancer
Principal Investigators: Ramandeep Rattan, Ph.D. (Henry Ford Health), Sachi Horibata, Ph.D. (MSU) and Jamie J. Bernard, Ph.D. (MSU) - Exploration of General and Culturally Targeted Education to Avoid Disparities in Clinical Trials on and Routine Use of Emerging Cancer Screening Technologies - Multicancer Early Detection
Principal Investigators: Christine Neslund-Dudas, Ph.D. (Henry Ford Health) and Todd Lucas, Ph.D. (MSU) - Investigate Impacts of Chemical Agents on Pancreatic Cancer Initiation Using Omics Approaches
Principal Investigators: Ling Huang, Ph.D. (Henry Ford Health) and Sudin Bhattacharya, Ph.D. (MSU) - Development of High Dimensional Dynamic Histology (HDDH): A Technique to Analyze Spatiotemporal Immunosuppressive Interactions in Pancreatic Cancer
Principal Investigators: Howard Crawford, Ph.D. (Henry Ford Health) and Bryan Ronain Smith, Ph.D. (MSU) - Developing Monoclonal Antibodies Against ZIP4 for Diagnosis and Therapy of Ovarian Cancer
Principal Investigators: Ramandeep Rattan, Ph.D. (Henry Ford Health) and Jian Hu, Ph.D. (MSU) - Evaluation of Zn and Fe Homeostasis in Cancer and Tumor-Infiltrating Immune Cells in Pancreatic Cancer Liver Metastasis with iNKT Cell Immunotherapy
Principal Investigators: Qing-Sheng Mi, Ph.D. (Henry Ford Health), Bong Jin Hong, Ph.D. (MSU), and Thomas V. O’Halloran (MSU) - Improving Detection of Head and Neck Cancer Recurrence Using Multi-Modality AI Models
Principal Investigators: Kundan Thind (Henry Ford Health) and Mohammad M. Ghassemi, Ph.D. (MSU) - Differential Effects of Air Pollution on Inflammatory Responses by Race: A Pathway to Cancer Disparities
Principal Investigators: Benjamin A. Rybicki, Ph.D. (Henry Ford Health) and Amber L. Pearson, Ph.D. (MSU) - First Steps Towards a Facile, Large Animal Model of Human Ovarian Cancer for Testing Novel Intraperitoneal Targeted Therapies
Principal Investigators: Ramandeep Rattan, Ph.D. (Henry Ford Health) and Erik Shapiro, Ph.D. (MSU) - Molecular and Immunological Determinants for the Malignant Transition and Sex Disparity in Head and Neck Cancer
Principal Investigators: Steven Chang, M.D. (Henry Ford Health), Samantha H. Tam, M.D. (Henry Ford Health) and Dohun Pyeon, Ph.D. (MSU) - Self-limiting Enzymatically-Cleavable Nanosystem with Quantitative Drug Release Monitoring for Improved Brain Cancer Therapy
Principal Investigators: Meser Ali, Ph.D. (Henry Ford Health) and Bryan Ronain Smith, Ph.D. (MSU) - Leveraging Patient Reported Outcomes in Multimodal Risk Prediction for Health Utilization among Head and Neck and Lung Cancer Patients
Principal Investigators: Samantha Tam, M.D. (Henry Ford Health) and Adam Alessio, Ph.D. (MSU) - Imaging-Guided Untethered Microrobot for Brain Cancer Therapy
Principal Investigators: Ian Y Lee, M.D. (Henry Ford Health) and Jinxing Li, Ph.D. (MSU) - Disparities in Short- and Long-term Wellbeing of Head and Neck Cancer Survivors
Principal Investigators: Samantha Tam, M.D. (Henry Ford Health) and Jeff Searl, Ph.D. (MSU) - Evaluation of HPV as a Driver of Carcinogenesis in Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma in Black Patients
Principal Investigators: Jesse Veenstra, M.D., Ph.D. (Henry Ford Health) and Jamie J. Bernard, Ph.D. (MSU) - Epigenetic Effects of Acculturation on Increased Breast Cancer Risk Among Polish Immigrant Women to the U.S
Principal Investigators: Menghua Tao, Ph.D. (Henry Ford Health) and Dorothy R. Pathak, Ph.D. (MSU) - Molecular Evaluation of Prostate Saturation Biopsy for Risk Assessment and Early Intervention
Principal Investigators: Nallasivam Palanisamy, Ph.D. (Henry Ford Health) and Daniel Isaac, D.O. (MSU)