Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences announced the funding of five cancer research grants of up to $100,000 each. These five grants follow an initial wave of funding from the partnership, in which 18 pilot grants of up to $25,000 each were funded in May 2022.
“We are proud to support the groundbreaking work of our dedicated researchers who are helping to advance the field of cancer medicine, reduce healthcare disparities and improve outcomes for patients with cancer,” says Ben Movsas, chair of the Health Sciences Cancer Committee and medical director of Henry Ford Cancer.
“These highly impactful research initiatives, 40 percent of which directly address cancer disparities, will help us gain critical insights into some of the most challenging issues facing the cancer community today, which in turn will benefit patients and make a difference in many lives.”
In total, researchers at Henry Ford and Michigan State University submitted 26 integration grant proposals for this latest wave of funding. Each research grant has a principal investigator from Henry Ford Health, a principal investigator from MSU, and additional key personnel from both organizations.
The five grants selected for the latest wave of funding are:
- An Adaptive Pre-Treatment Stratification Model for Clinical Decision Support of Patients with Head & Neck Cancers. Goal: To study cancer health disparities focusing on diverse patient cohorts with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. Principal Investigators: Adam Alessio (MSU), Indrin Chetty (Henry Ford).
- Identify Mechanisms Underlying Sex Disparities in Liver Carcinoma Development. Goal: To analyze sex differences in hepatocellular carcinoma. Principal Investigators: Qing-Sheng Mi (Henry Ford), Hua Xiao (MSU).
- Enhancing the Therapeutic Gain of Radiation Therapy for Brain Cancer by Reducing Cellular Senescence. Goal: To demonstrate that radiation-induced senescent cells are a source of late injury. Principal Investigators: Stephen Brown (Henry Ford), Marcia Gordon (MSU).
- New Nanotherapy for Brain Tumors based on miR-10b Inhibition. Goal: To investigate novel nanotherapy aimed at improving outcomes in glioblastoma. Principal Investigators: Anna Moore (MSU), Ana deCarvalho (Henry Ford).
- Development of Sialyl Lewis A Targeting Monoclonal Antibodies Toward The Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer. Goal: To develop new antibodies that target the most common biomarker for pancreatic cancer. Principal Investigators: Howard Crawford (Henry Ford), Xuefei Huang (MSU).
