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Cancer Seed Funding Program

Cancer Seed Funding Program

Our Henry Ford + MSU Cancer Seed Funding Program supports unique and collaborative grant proposals that combine the clinical and scientific strengths of both Henry Ford Health and Michigan State University.

Since 2022, we have awarded more than $2.4 million through this initiative, with 35% of the 61 funded projects focused on cancer disparities, underscoring our shared commitment to improving outcomes in the communities we serve.

Cancer research powered by partnership funding

The following research has received support from the Henry Ford + MSU Cancer Seed Funding Program:

Scientists Uncover How HPV-Positive Cancers Hide from the Immune System 

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How Reliable Is AI Information?

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New Microrobots Could Reduce Patient Risks

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Designed for cross-institutional impact

In the first two years, we focused on fostering connections between Henry Ford and MSU researchers through seed grants, and in the third year, we shifted to supporting collaborative projects with a high likelihood of advancing toward an NCI grant application within one year of funding. Each award includes a principal investigator from Henry Ford and a principal investigator from Michigan State University.

The next seed funding opportunity will be announced at a later date.

Future NCI Grant Applications
  1. Christina Chan, Ph.D. (MSU) and Ramandeep Rattan, Ph.D. (Henry Ford)
  2. Sue Catherine Grady, Ph.D. (MSU) and Ikenna Okereke, M.D. (Henry Ford)
  3. Sachi Horibata, Ph.D. (MSU) and Frederick Valeriote, Ph.D. (Henry Ford)
  4. Sachi Horibata, Ph.D. (MSU) and Jamie Bernard, Ph.D. (MSU), and Ramandeep Rattan, Ph.D. (Henry Ford)
  5. Ling Huang, Ph.D. (Henry Ford) and Thomas O'Halloran, Ph.D. (MSU)
  6. Xiaoyu Liang, Ph.D. (MSU) and Hongsheng Gui, Ph.D. (Henry Ford)
  7. Jeff MacKeigan, Ph.D. and Katie Martin, Ph.D. (MSU), and Howard Crawford, Ph.D. (Henry Ford)
  8. Christine Neslund-Dudas, Ph.D. (Henry Ford) and Kelly Hirko, Ph.D. (MSU)
  9. Olorunseun Ogunwobi, Ph.D. (MSU) and Brian Theisen, M.D. (Henry Ford)
  10. Amanda Pilling, Ph.D. (Henry Ford) and Jeff MacKeigan, Ph.D. (MSU)
  11. Bryan Smith, Ph.D. (MSU) and Atsushi Yoshida, M.D. (Henry Ford) and Sunil Chakrapani, Ph.D. (MSU)
  12. Menghua Tao, Ph.D. (Henry Ford) and Horng-Shiuann Wu, Ph.D. (MSU)
  13. Kundan Thind, Ph.D. (Henry Ford) and Mohammad Ghassemi, Ph.D. (MSU)
  14. Tommy Van Vo, Ph.D. (MSU) and Ramandeep Rattan, Ph.D. (Henry Ford)
Integration Grants
  1. Interrogating the Phenotype and Function of γδ T Cells in Pancreatic Cancer Liver Metastasis
    • Principal Investigators: Bin Chen, Ph.D. (MSU) and Nina Steele, Ph.D. (Henry Ford)
  2. Targeting miR-10b to Induce PTEN Expression: A Novel Therapeutic Strategy for PTEN-deficient GBM
    • Principal Investigators: Ming Chen, Ph.D. (MSU) and Ana deCarvalho, Ph.D. (Henry Ford)
  3. Developing Novel Cancer Immunotherapy by Inhibiting MARCHF8 and Autophagy
    • Principal Investigators: Dohun Pyeon, Ph.D. (MSU) and Qing-Sheng Mi, M.D., Ph.D. (Henry Ford)
  4. Precision Control of Drug Release using MPI-based Monitoring to Improve Brain Metastases Treatment
    • Principal Investigators: Bryan Smith, Ph.D. (MSU) and Tavarekere Nagaraj, Ph.D. (Henry Ford)
Pilot Grants
  1. Biomimetic Prussian Blue Nanohybrids for Glioblastoma Treatment
    • Principal Investigators: Tavarekere N. Nagaraja, Ph.D. (Henry Ford) and Taeho Kim, Ph.D. (MSU)
  2. Synthesis and Radiation Radioprotection Studies of UTS-1401 Analogs
    • Principal Investigators: Fred Valeriote, Ph.D. (Henry Ford) and Edmund Ellsworth, Ph.D. (MSU)
  3. 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) and Maryam Naghibolhosseini, Ph.D. (MSU)
  4. Examining the Metabolic Link between Obesity and Chemoresistance in Ovarian Cancer
    • Principal Investigators: Ramandeep Rattan, Ph.D. (Henry Ford), Sachi Horibata, Ph.D. (MSU) and Jamie J. Bernard, Ph.D. (MSU)
  5. 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) and Todd Lucas, Ph.D. (MSU)
  6. Investigate Impacts of Chemical Agents on Pancreatic Cancer Initiation Using Omics Approaches
    • Principal Investigators: Ling Huang, Ph.D. (Henry Ford) and Sudin Bhattacharya, Ph.D. (MSU)
  7. 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) and Bryan Ronain Smith, Ph.D. (MSU)
  8. Developing Monoclonal Antibodies Against ZIP4 for Diagnosis and Therapy of Ovarian Cancer
    • Principal Investigators: Ramandeep Rattan, Ph.D. (Henry Ford) and Jian Hu, Ph.D. (MSU)
  9. 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), Bong Jin Hong, Ph.D. (MSU), and Thomas V. O’Halloran (MSU)
  10. 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)
  11. Differential Effects of Air Pollution on Inflammatory Responses by Race: A Pathway to Cancer Disparities
    • Principal Investigators: Benjamin A. Rybicki, Ph.D. (Henry Ford) and Amber L. Pearson, Ph.D. (MSU)
  12. 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) and Erik Shapiro, Ph.D. (MSU)
  13. Molecular and Immunological Determinants for the Malignant Transition and Sex Disparity in Head and Neck Cancer
    • Principal Investigators: Steven Chang, M.D. (Henry Ford), Samantha H. Tam, M.D. (Henry Ford Health) and Dohun Pyeon, Ph.D. (MSU)
  14. Self-limiting Enzymatically-Cleavable Nanosystem with Quantitative Drug Release Monitoring for Improved Brain Cancer Therapy
    • Principal Investigators: Meser Ali, Ph.D. (Henry Ford) and Bryan Ronain Smith, Ph.D. (MSU)
  15. 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)
  16. Imaging-Guided Untethered Microrobot for Brain Cancer Therapy
    • Principal Investigators: Ian Y Lee, M.D. (Henry Ford) and Jinxing Li, Ph.D. (MSU)
  17. Disparities in Short- and Long-term Wellbeing of Head and Neck Cancer Survivors
    • Principal Investigators: Samantha Tam, M.D. (Henry Ford) and Jeff Searl, Ph.D. (MSU)
  18. 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) and Jamie J. Bernard, Ph.D. (MSU)
  19. 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) and Dorothy R. Pathak, Ph.D. (MSU)
  20. Molecular Evaluation of Prostate Saturation Biopsy for Risk Assessment and Early Intervention
    • Principal Investigators: Nallasivam Palanisamy, Ph.D. (Henry Ford) and Daniel Isaac, D.O. (MSU)
Integration Grants
  1. An Adaptive Pre-Treatment Stratification Model for Clinical Decision Support of Patients with Head & Neck Cancers
    • Principal Investigators: Adam Alessio, Ph.D. (MSU), Indrin Chetty, Ph.D. (Henry Ford)
  2. Identify Mechanisms Underlying Sex Disparities in Liver Carcinoma Development
    • Principal Investigators: Qing-Sheng Mi, M.D., Ph.D. (Henry Ford), Hua Xiao, M.D., Ph.D. (MSU)
  3. Enhancing the Therapeutic Gain of Radiation Therapy for Brain Cancer by Reducing Cellular Senescence
    • Principal Investigators: Stephen Brown, Ph.D. (Henry Ford), Marcia Gordon, Ph.D. (MSU)
  4. New Nanotherapy for Brain Tumors based on miR-10b Inhibition
    • Principal Investigators: Anna Moore, Ph.D. (MSU), Ana deCarvalho, Ph.D. (Henry Ford)
  5. Development of Sialyl Lewis A Targeting Monoclonal Antibodies Toward The Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer
    • Principal Investigators: Howard Crawford, Ph.D. (Henry Ford), Xuefei Huang, Ph.D. (MSU)
Pilot Grants
  1. Identification of longitudinal radiogenomic features associated with disease progression events in IDH-mutant glioma
    • Principal Investigators: Laila Poisson (Henry Ford) and Adam Alessio (MSU)
  2. Predictive validity of patient reported outcomes for unscheduled health services use
    • Principal Investigators: Steven Chang (Henry Ford) and Alla Sikorskii (MSU)
  3. Development of novel small molecule inhibitors of Tribbles 2 using artificial intelligence
    • Principal Investigators: Jagananda Ghosh (Henry Ford) and Bin Chen (MSU)
  4. Bionic cells: CAR-T cell Nanotow-trucks for enhanced tumor localization
    • Principal Investigators: Edward Peres (Henry Ford) and Bryan Smith (MSU)
  5. Modeling and Measuring the Spatiotemporal Distribution of Systemically Administered Therapeutics in Breast Cancer Brain Metastasis
    • Principal Investigators: James Ewing (Henry Ford) and Christopher Contag (MSU)
  6. Synthesis and Anticancer Studies of Apratoxin F
    • Principal Investigators: Fred Valeriote (Henry Ford) and Edmund Ellsworth (MSU)
  7. Modulation of the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor by Adipose Tissue: Implications for Skin Carcinogenesis
    • Principal Investigators: Jesse Veenstra (Henry Ford)  and Jamie Bernard (MSU)
  8. Production of [18F]FHBG to image Ad5-yCD/mutTKSR39rep-ADP in ongoing gene therapy trials
    • Principal Investigators: Tobias Walbert (Henry Ford) and Jinda Fan (MSU)
  9. Increasing Equity in Implementation of Electronic Patient Reported Outcome Measures Platform to Improve Delivery of Cancer Care
    • Principal Investigators: Samantha Tam (Henry Ford) and Kelly Hirko (MSU)
  10. Examining the prevalence and impact of lung and non-lung incidental findings on low-dose CT scans for lung cancer screening in a rural and urban health system
    • Principal Investigators: Christine Neslund-Dudas (Henry Ford) and Kelly Hirko (MSU)
  11. Multilevel formative evaluation of barriers and facilitators to implementation of an electronic health record-embedded digital health smoking cessation intervention in a rural health system
    • Principal Investigators: Jordan Braciszewski (Henry Ford) and Kelly Hirko (MSU)
  12. Examining geographic, racial and ethnic disparities in access and utilization of targeted drug therapies and genetic testing in breast cancer
    • Principal Investigators: Eleanor Walker( Henry Ford) and Kelly Hirko (MSU)
  13. Characterize the Tribbles 2 interactome to reveal actionable novel targets for therapy of enzalutamide-resistant, lethal prostate cancer
    • Principal Investigators: Jagananda Ghosh (Henry Ford) and Lianliang Sun (MSU)
  14. Combined single cell transcriptome and proteome analysis unveils iNKT cell function in pancreatic cancer liver metastasis
    • Principal Investigators: Qing-Sheng Mi (Henry Ford) and Lianliang Sun (MSU)
  15. Magnetic Resonance Imaging Based Radiomics Model for Characterization of Physiological and Mechanical Properties of Solid Tumors in Rat Brain
    • Principal Investigators: Hassan Bagher- Ebadian (Henry Ford) and Mohammed Ghassemi (MSU)
  16. Mitigation of Radiation Fibrosis by CCG 257081
    1. Principal Investigators: Stephen Brown (Henry Ford) and Richard Neubig (MSU)
  17. Identifying and Reducing Disparities in Lung Cancer Patients in Wayne County
    • Principal Investigators: Ikenna Okereke (Henry Ford) and  Sue Grady (MSU)
  18. A Preliminary Exploration of Culturally Targeted Communication to Reduce Lung Cancer Screening Disparities in Metropolitan Detroit
    • Principal Investigators: Ikenna Okereke (Henry Ford) and Todd Lucas (MSU)

Questions?

Email us at henryfordmsu@msu.edu.

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