Masonic Cancer Center announces Spring 2024 internal grant awards

The Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota recently announced the awarding of $230,000 in pilot grants through its Spring 2024 Internal Grant Program. Support for these grants is made available by the center through a variety of funding sources, including the Minnesota Masonic Charities, American Cancer Society, Women’s Cancer Research Fund, and 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

Metal Mixtures and Lung Cancer Incidence in Cigarette Smokers from the Multiethnic Cohort Study.
Shannon Sullivan, PhD, MPH, MS
Award Amount: $40,000

Targeting protein-protein interactions in resistant ER+ breast cancer.
Thu Truong, PhD
Award Amount: $40,000

Cancer Research Translational Initiative (CRTI) Translational Working Group Awards

Reprograming the leukemic microenvironment to eradicate measurable residual disease
Sean Tracy, MD, PhD, Division of Hematology, Oncology, and Transplantation, Medical School
Dileepan Thamotharampillai, DVM, PhD, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Medical School 
Award Amount: $50,000

Mezin-Koats Colon Cancer Research Award

Characterization of microbiome-associated biomarkers in a clinical trial of probiotics in colon cancer
Ajay Prakash, MD, PhD, Division of Hematology, Oncology, and Transplantation, Medical School
Subree Subramanian, PhD, Department of Surgery, Medical School
Award Amount: $25,000

Targeting Amino Acids Transporter LAT1 as a Novel Approach in Colorectal Cancer therapy
Subree Subramanian, PhD, Department of Surgery, Medical School
Andrew Nelson, MD, PhD, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Medical School
Emil Lou, MD, PhD, FACP, Division of Hematology, Oncology, and Transplantation, Medical School
Award Amount: $25,000

Women’s Cancers Research Award

Hormonal Imbalance Drives Early Events in BRCA1/2-Deficient Ovarian Cancer
Carol Lange, PhD, Division of Hematology, Oncology, and Transplantation, Medical School 
Laura Mauro, PhD, Department of Animal Science, College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences
Award Amount: $50,000