Group items tagged

Cell-based therapies, especially immune cells, have the potential to revolutionize human healthcare in various different contexts, including cancer and personalized medicine. For example, CAR (Chimeric antigen receptor) T-cell therapy for cancer requires modification, in vitro culture and expansion of human T-cells.   Manufacturing of therapeutic cells as the end product presents major engineering challenges.  New therapies and cell-based products depend critically on the development of robust, reliable and reproducible biomanufacturing technologies.

The American Society for Radiation Oncology is accepting applications for its 2019 Minority Summer Fellowship Award. The annual program is designed to introduce medical students from backgrounds that are underrepresented in medicine to the discipline of radiation oncology early in their medical education. Although medical students in all years are encouraged to apply, preference will be given to first- and second-year students. In an effort to promote radiation oncology as a career choice, the fellowship will expose medical students to clinical, basic, and translational research questions in radiation oncology. The fellowship provides each student with a $4,500 package that includes a $3,500 stipend for the eight-week training program (exceptions can be made for a longer program but will need to be approved by ASTRO's Committee on Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, or "CHEDI") and $1,000 toward the cost of travel to the organization's 2019 annual meeting. To be eligible, applicants must be enrolled in a United States medical school and be able to identify a mentor with a successful record of research productivity. The mentor should be an ASTRO member. In addition, research must be undertaken at a North American institution during the summer of 2019.

The intent of the PRMRP Discovery Award is to support innovative, non-incremental, high-risk/potentially high-reward research that will provide new insights, paradigms, technologies, or applications. Studies supported by this award are expected to lay the groundwork for future avenues of scientific investigation. The proposed research project should include a well-formulated, testable hypothesis based on a sound scientific rationale and study design. The anticipated direct costs budgeted for the entire period of performance for an FY19 PRMRP Discovery Award will not exceed $200,000. Refer to Section II.D.5, Funding Restrictions, for detailed funding information.

The PRMRP Investigator-Initiated Research Award (IIRA) is intended to support studies that will make an important contribution toward research and/or patient care for a disease or condition related to at least one of the FY19 PRMRP Topic Areas. The rationale for a research idea may be derived from a laboratory discovery, population-based studies, a clinician's first-hand knowledge of patients, or anecdotal data. Applications must include relevant data that support the rationale for the proposed study. These data may be unpublished or from the published literature

The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is to promote the discovery of novel small molecules that may enhance the ability of the immune system to selectively recognize and attack cancer cells. These small molecules could be further developed into stand-alone immunotherapeutics or synergistic partners for existing therapies, or as chemical probes for the discovery and validation of novel targets involved in anti-tumor immunity. Investigators from multiple scientific disciplines (immuno-oncology, tumor biology, screening technology, medicinal chemistry, and pharmacology) are encouraged to establish collaborative teams to discover and develop novel small molecule immunomodulators for cancer therapy. This FOA encourages the design of research projects that utilize the following phases of discovery research: 1) assay development specifically designed for immuno-oncology targets with the intent to screen for novel small molecule compounds that show potential as either probes or drugs, or as pre-therapeutic leads; 2) screen implementation for immunomodulatory targets to identify initial screening hits (from high throughput target-focused approaches or moderate throughput phenotypic- and fragment-based approaches); 3) hit validation through secondary orthogonal and counter screening assays, and hit prioritization; and 4) hit-to-lead optimization.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to support research projects that examine how inter-organelle communication in cancer cells and/or tumor-associated cells affects cellular function, adaptation, and phenotypic plasticity.