Announcing our spring 2025 internal grant awardees

We're pleased to once again announce the awarding of $290,000 in pilot grants through our Spring 2025 Internal Grant Program! Support for these grants is made available by the center through a variety of funding sources, including Minnesota Masonic Charities, the American Cancer Society, and the Mezin-Koats Colon Cancer Research Fund.

The purpose of this program is to promote innovation, spark research collaborations, and support novel research concepts with the goal of answering the toughest cancer research questions. The goal of the program is to fund pilot projects that lead to nationally peer-reviewed grant funding.

Please join us in thanking the Masonic Cancer Center’s support partners and congratulating this year’s award recipients!

American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grants

Optimizing Multi-Omics Integration for Accurate Cancer Subtype Classification Using Novel Hybrid Algorithms
David Guinovart, PhD, Hormel Institute
Award Amount: $40,000

Cancer Research Translational Initiative (CRTI) Translational Working Group Awards

Improving CAR T Cell Efficacy in Patient-derived Samples – A Proof of Concept Study
Craig Byersdorfer, MD, PhD, Department of Pediatrics, Medical School
Peter Gordon, MD, PhD, Department of Pediatrics, Medical School
Award Amount: $50,000

Influence of Fasting to Augment PI3K Inhibitor Effects in Metastatic Breast Cancer
Lisa Chow, MD, MS, Department of Medicine, Medical School
Anne Blaes, MD, Department of Medicine, Medical School
Douglas Mashek, PhD, Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics, Medical School
Thu Truong, PhD, Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics, Medical School
Award Amount: $50,000

Targeting advanced ovarian cancer using genetically modified tumor infiltrating lymphocytes
Branden Moriarity, PhD, Department of Pediatrics, Medical School
Beau Webber, PhD, Department of Pediatrics, Medical School
Melissa Geller, MD, MS, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women's Health, Medical School
Award Amount: $50,000

Mezin-Koats Colon Cancer Research Award

Oral Microbiota Transplantation Therapy to Accelerate Gut Recovery After Surgery
Cyrus Jahansouz, MD, Department of Surgery, Medical School
Chris Staley, PhD, Department of Surgery, Medical School
Award Amount: $25,000

Urinary Metal Mixtures and Colorectal Cancer Risk: Insights from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)
Shannon Sullivan, PhD, MPH, MS, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Medical School
Anna Prizment, PhD, MPH, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Medical School
Award Amount: $25,000

Rein in Sarcoma Foundation Grant

Regulation of the fusion oncogene PAX3-FOXO1 in rhabdomyosarcoma by m6A RNA methylation
Nobuaki Kikyo, MD, PhD, Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development, Medical School
Award Amount: $50,000