Research funded by Project Cure CRC
Innovation is in progress.

Funding urgent science for today’s patients
The Alliance’s Project Cure CRC continues to make global investments based on expert recommendations and areas of urgent necessity, outlined in this request for proposals. Awardees are listed below.
Funded research

Raghu Kalluri, MD, PhD
Dr. Kalluri of MD Anderson Cancer Center aims to develop urgently needed therapeutic options for the 96% of colorectal cancer patients with microsatellite stable (MSS) disease.

H. Charles Manning, PhD
H. Charles Manning, PhD, a professor at MD Anderson Cancer Center, will lead a collaborative effort to discover the first theranostic pair for imaging and therapy for patients with CRC.

Peter Lee, MD
Dr. Peter Lee of City of Hope will pursue a novel combination immunotherapy to treat metastatic MSS colorectal cancer, which does not respond well to current treatments.

Kevin Van der Jeught, PhD
Kevin Van Der Jeught, PhD, of the University of Miami, seeks to improve intratumoral mRNA vaccination strategies by targeting immune checkpoints to enhance anti-tumor immune responses.

Ekaterina Dadachova, PhD
Ekaterina Dadachova, PhD, of The University of Saskatchewan will investigate combining targeted radiation with immunotherapies for a novel and synergistic approach to treat advanced colorectal cancer, improving clinical outcomes.

Yekaterina Y. Zaytseva, PhD
Yekaterina Y. Zaytseva, PhD, of the University of Kentucky, will investigate new drug combinations to kill CRC cells with a BRAF mutation. These cells currently have a low response rate to existing treatments.

Ashiq Masood, MD
Dr. Masood of Indiana University is studying ProAgio, a new protein that targets cells aiding cancer's survival. This approach could improve therapies for tough-to-treat tumors.

Caterina Suelzu, PhD
Dr. Suelzu of Anglia Ruskin University will investigate how fat tissue impacts the growth and spread of colorectal cancer, especially in people with obesity.

Julia Carnevale, MD
Dr. Carnevale of UCSF will use cutting-edge technology to target multiple genes at once, seeking to uncover weaknesses in cancer cells and boost the body’s immune response.

David Robbins, PhD
Dr. Robbins of Georgetown University aims to target and stop the circulating tumor cells responsible for forming metastatic tumors. Success could improve mCRC survival rates.

Angelique Whitehurst, PhD

Melissa Fishel, PhD

Wenhan Zhu, PhD

Hyunyoung Jeong, PharmD, PhD

Boyi Gan, PhD

Binfeng Lu, PhD

Nilo Azad, MD

Christopher Lengner, PhD

Khosrow Rezvani, PhD

Brandon Bordeau, PhD

Karin Pelka, PhD

Raul Mostoslavsky, MD, PhD
By the numbers: Project Cure CRC
million in funding allocated
projects supported
million funding goal
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Project Cure CRC seeks research proposals from early-career investigators, senior investigators, teams, startup companies, and others. We prioritize collaboration toward curative science.
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