Applicants must be post-docs or graduate students. At the time of award funding, awardees must be trainee members of the cancer center (mentor must be a cancer center member).
Awardees are not eligible to apply for pilot funding in back-to-back cycles.
Proposals may span cancer biology; early drug development, including target identification; new model systems development and all aspects of cancer prevention and control, including population science and symptom management to name a few. Proposals that provide training in new technologies are strongly encouraged. This mechanism may not be used to support clinical trials.
Awarded proposals receive $10,000 in funding and the project must be completed within 12 months of the funding date.
The RFA is typically issued in November and Notices of Intent are due in early January. Applications are then due in early February. Extensions are not granted for late applications.
Submitted proposals are reviewed by two separate review committees. The review study sections are conducted four to six weeks after the submission deadline and chaired by the associate director and assistant director of the cancer center’s Cancer Research Training and Education Coordination. Review study sections mirror NIH protocol in which submissions receive initial scores from a primary and secondary reviewer and are then discussed and re-scored by the whole review committee.
Final scores, feedback, and awards are announced approximately one month after the date of the second review study section.
Lokesh Kumari, Postdoc
- Investigating the Synergistic Effect of Cisplatin and HPV E6 Inhibition on Tumors in Mice
Devon McCourry, Graduate Student
- Exploring the Balance of SETD8 and PHF8 in Glioblastoma
Grace Xiyu Wang, 5th year MD/PhD Student
- Targeting RNase L to Enhance Immunotherapy in Triple-negative Breast Cancer
Rosie Lanzloth, Graduate Student
- Understanding the Direct Mechanisms by Which Mast Cells Induce Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition in Mucinous Colorectal Cancer
Sarah Gutch, Graduate Student
- Functional, Transcriptomic, and Phenotypic Analysis of Multilymphoid Progenitors for Treatment of Hematologic Disease
Savannah Epstein, Graduate Student
- Advancing Patient-Derived Organoids (PDOs) to Develop a Translational Model of Cancer Cachexia
Ahmed Abdelaal, Postdoc
- The Role of IL-9R+ Macrophages and Regulatory T cells in Lung Cancer
Alexander Kritikos, Gradaute Student
- HUNK as a DualTumor and Tumor Microenvironment Modulator
Omar Borges-Sosa, Postdoc
- Sex Differences in Estrogen-Driven Tumor Growth and Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors Responses in Lung Cancer
