2020 Randy Shaver Cancer Research & Community Fund Awards
Each year the Randy Shaver Cancer Research & Community Fund awards grants to groups across the state of Minnesota that are working to reduce the burden of cancer.
The mission of the Randy Shaver Cancer Research and Community Fund is to support the cancer community in Minnesota by funding research, prevention, treatment and other programs relating to the cancer community’s needs.
The following Masonic Cancer Center members were recently awarded Shaver Fund Awards from the Randy Shaver Cancer Research and Community Fund.
| PROJECT | AWARDEE | Title |
| EBV Vaccine | Henry Balfour, MD | A vaccine against the first human cancer viruses (Epstein-Barr Virus) |
| Repurposing Non-Cancer Drugs | Venkatram Merredy, PhD | Repurposing FDA-approved clinically used non-cancer drugs for an immediate impact on pancreatic cancer treatment |
| B Cell Cancers | Veronika Bachanova, MD, PhD | Developing a new drug for treatment of B Cell cancers |
| Ovarian Cancer | Martina Bazzaro, PhD | Identify a molecular signature predictive of ovarian cancer metastasis and a means to treat it |
| Pancreatic Cancer | Julia Davydova, MD, PhD | To develop a multimodal therapy for pancreatic cancer |
| Lung Cancer | Gunda Georg, PhD | To develop novel therapeutics for lung cancer treatment |
| Leukemia | Peter Gordon, MD, PhD | Development of a novel therapy for the treatment of leukemia |
| Liver Cancer | Betsy Kren, PhD | Targeted therapy for liver cancer in models unresponsive to the first line therapeutic |
| Zika Virus | Walt Low, PhD | Zika virus - based therapy for treating malignant brain tumors |
| Multiple Myeloma | Aimee Merino, MD, PhD | To determine the most efficacious way to use our expanded, adaptive NK cell product to treat multiple myeloma |
| Pediatric Osteosarcoma | Branden Moriarity, PhD | Develop a novel antibody based therapeutic with intent of eventual clinical translation for pediatric osteosarcoma |
| Neurotoxicity in Immunotherapy | Christopher Pennell, PhD | To prevent neurotoxicity caused by A type of cancer immunotherapy |
| Breast Cancer | David Potter, MD, PhD | Overcoming hormone therapy resistance in ER+ and HER2 breast cancer |
| Prostate Cancer | Arpit Rao, MD | to perform validation of exosome-based liquid biopsy assay as a marker of minimal residual disease in patients with advanced prostate cancer |
| TriKEs and TetraKEs | Deepali Sachdev, PhD | Test a novel immunotherapy for solid cancers (metastatic breast cancer) |
| IncuCyte S3 Imaging System | Amy Skubitz, PhD | Imaging system to digitally monitor cancer cell behavior |
| Ovarian Cancer | Timothy Starr, PhD | Develop immunotherapy treatment for advanced ovarian cancer |
| Developing New Cancer Drugs | Daniel Vallera, PhD | Taking the next steps towards bringing a new immunotherapy drug to first in human studies |
| Liver Cancer | Jeffrey Albrecht, MD | To develop a multimodal therapy for pancreatic cancer |