Congratulations to our nine award winners

The Cancer Research Foundation is pleased to announce its 2025 Young Investigator Award winners. This year, the Foundation has committed to supporting nine exciting new talents in cancer research, including the 2025 Breakthrough Board Scholar, all focused on adding to and leveraging some of the most compelling novel science being brought to bear in the fight against cancer. Our 2025 Young Investigators all hail from Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the middle of the US and are involved in a range of recently defined scientific fields and findings, from leveraging the microbiome in immunotherapy to elucidating cellular condensates. A number of the 2025 YIAs are focused on making immune system-based therapy both more effective and more easily targeted. With this group we are also supporting work on systems and structures within the tumor microenvironment, novel methods to employ donor immune cells to fight cancer and new ways to track and attack both metastatic disease and the side-effects that sideline otherwise effective therapies. While some supported projects focus on specific types of cancers, others are pursuing basic cancer biology which could help a much wider group of potential cancer sufferers or even lead to better prevention overall.

The Cancer Research Foundation Young Investigator Award was established more than 30 years ago to support early career researchers as they establish their own labs and assemble their first data sets. The award serves to give promising scientists a leg up and draw talent from surrounding fields into cancer science. Each young investigator is awarded $100,000 over two years to support a particular project. In addition, all past and present young investigators are invited to join the Cancer Research Foundation at our annual meeting, an event focused on creating connections and promoting networking between funded scientists. We believe that by supporting early career scientists, creating a community among them, and supporting innovative and high risk/high reward scientific investigation, CRF YIAs represent grants with a particularly strong opportunity to make positive investments and real gains in cancer knowledge, treatment, and prevention. Each year, we fund scientists who we fell are the most impressive and promising group yet and this year’s cohort is no exception. Please join us in congratulating the 2025 Cancer Research Foundation Young Investigator Award winners!

Jonathan Chen, MD, PhD | Assistant Professor of Pathology, Northwestern University
YIA Project: Perturbing and Reconstructing Immunity Hub Elements in Cancer

Christine R. Zhang, PhD | Assistant Professor of Pathology, Northwestern University
YIA Project: Decoding the Molecular Mechanisms Underlying NPM1-mutation-driven Leukemogenesis

John J. Krais, PhD | Assistant Professor of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis
YIA Project: Models and Mechanisms of Fanconi Anemia-driven Cancer Formation

Brett H. Herzog, MD, PhD | Assistant Professor of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis
YIA Project: Impact of PDGFR⍺+ CAFs on Anti-tumor Immunity in the Tumor Microenvironment of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Jennifer A. Foltz, PhD | Assistant Professor of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis
YIA Project: Elucidating Programs of an Effective Natural Killer Cell Therapy

Joseph W. Franses, MD, PhD | Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Chicago
YIA Project: Defining Novel Hepatocellular Carcinoma Circulating Tumor Cell Biomarkers and Drug Targets

Joon Seok Park, PhD Breakthrough Board Scholar | Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Chicago
YIA Project: Investigating the Mechanisms and Therapeutic Use of Commensal Microbes in Cancer Immunotherapy

Martina Damo, PhD | Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Chicago
YIA Project: Mechanisms of Checkpoint Receptor Inhibitor-dependent Immune-related Adverse Events

Salman Banani, MD, PhD | Neubauer Family Assistant Professor, University of Chicago
YIA Project: rDNA Dysregulation in Cancer