Congratulations to our eight award winners

The Cancer Research Foundation Young Investigator Award is intended to launch a scientist’s career as a primary investigator in cancer research.  Too often, early career researchers find themselves slowed or even blocked by the fact that most funding requires primary data and proof of principle and yet there is very little financial backing available to support those first data sets.  These $100,000 grants, funded over two years, hope to fast-track some of the best new minds in cancer science leading to novel ideas and new innovations in the treatment, prevention, and cure of cancer. 

Xue-Yan He, PhD | Assistant Professor, Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, Washington University in St. Louis, School of Medicine
YIA Project: Unraveling Stress’s Impact on Gut Microenvironment During Colorectal Cancer Progression

Sridevi Challa, PhD (Breakthrough Board Scholar) | Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Chicago
YIA Project: Exploring the Mechanisms of Adipocyte-Mediated Regulation of NAD+ Metabolism and PARP Inhibitor Resistance in Ovarian Cancers

David Zemmour, MD, PhD | Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology, University of Chicago
YIA Project: Understanding Tissue-Specific Regulatory T Cells and their Cellular Crosstalk in Immune Checkpoint Blockade-Induced Colitis

Miriam Kim, MD | Assistant Professor, Division of Oncology, Washington University in St. Louis, School of Medicine
YIA Project: Developing the Optimal Lymphodepletion Strategy to Support CAR T Cell Activity

Jie Zhou, PhD | Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation & Cellular Oncology / Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago
YIA Project: Developing a Novel IR-Inducible Gene Amplifier to Potentiate Combination Therapy

Rui Tang, PhD | Assistant Professor, Department of Neurological Surgery, Washington University in St. Louis, School of Medicine
YIA Project: Genetic Dissection of Direct Cancer-Stroma Interactions in SCLC Metastasis

Chun-Kan Chen, PhD | Assistant Professor, Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, Washington University in St. Louis, School of Medicine
YIA Project: Identification of CircRNA-Derived Neoantigens to Enhance Cancer Immunotherapy

Axel R. Concepcion, PhD | Neubauer Family Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of Chicago
YIA Project: Decoding the cGAMP Channel Network that Controls T Cell Mediated Antitumor Immunity