Catalyst Grant Program is sponsored by Curebound. Catalyst Grant funding is available for San Diego-based early-stage biotech companies to conduct innovative oncology-based research that addresses critical challenges in cancer prevention, detection, and treatment and demonstrates opportunity to advance swiftly to clinic.

Curebound funds promising, innovative oncology research for all types of cancer, adult and pediatric, in alignment with five scientific investment pillars: Cancer Detection; Novel Approaches, Targets, and Therapeutics; Personalized Immunotherapy; Cancer Equity; Childhood Cancers.

Curebound grants, applications, research portfolio, partners The best ideas happen when the right people work together. COLLABORATIVE PARTNERS + RESEARCH PILLARS Collaboration is at the center of Curebound’s unique grantmaking platform.

All Curebound grants demand collaboration among specialized teams led by San Diego-based research institutions, enabling the brightest minds from different scientific disciplines to work together to produce better options and outcomes for patients.

Eligible team leader institutions include but are not limited to: UC San Diego including UCSD Health and Moores Cancer Center La Jolla Institute for Immunology Curebound funds promising, innovative oncology research for all types of cancer, adult and pediatric, in alignment with five scientific investment pillars: Novel Approaches, Targets, and Therapeutics Personalized Immunotherapy All grant submissions undergo rigorous peer review and are held to the strictest standards of scientific excellence.

Curebound is committed to supporting the most exciting projects in cancer research at all stages including work that is ready to make the transition to commercialization and patient application.

Catalyst Grant funding is available for San Diego based early-stage biotech companies to conduct research that addresses critical challenges in cancer prevention, detection, and treatment and demonstrates opportunity to advance swiftly to clinic. To learn more about the Catalyst Grant program, please read on below. Curebound currently funds four types of cancer research grants.

Please click below for detailed information on each grant type and contact the Grants Department with any questions at research@curebound. org One-time seed grants of up to $250,000 for high-risk/high-reward, research that requires inter-institutional collaboration. Ideas are innovative and in the early phases where smaller grants can make a big impact in advancing research.

Larger awards of $500,000 that aim to fund projects that are closer to clinical stages. Targeted Grants require interdisciplinary collaboration in order to ensure the project is geared toward translational application. Innovative, multi-disciplinary projects that receive major funding of $1,000,000 to be administered over multiple years.

The Cure Prize challenge is to develop an innovation that will improve the standard of care for a typically deadly cancer with patient application in 3-5 years. Catalyst Grants award funds of up to $250,000 to early-stage companies to conduct innovative oncology-based research that holds promise for rapid translation to the clinic.

In 2024 and 2025 Equity Grants were awarded up to $250,000 for high-impact research aimed at reducing cancer related health disparities by increasing access to high-quality care by promoting cancer prevention, screening, and detection within medically underrepresented or underserved communities. Curebound has opened the 2026 Grant application process and call for LOIs on February 27.

If you would like to receive information or have questions about how to apply for Curebound grant funding, please email us at research@curebound. org . View the 2025 Research Portfolio + Annual Report Curebound raises and invests strategic funding in translational cancer research projects aimed at accelerating new discoveries to clinical application.

The full index of our research portfolio is available below. SUMO Inhibition and Irinotecan: A Novel Synergistic Combination for Pancreatic Cancer Therapy Outcomes for pancreatic duct adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients remain poor by any reasonable metric and thus more effective therapies are needed.

We hypothesize that targeting the post translational modification, SUMOylation, will be an effective therapy for PDAC as we have shown SUMO inhibition (SUMOi) activates anti-PDAC immune responses. Modulating Nup37 For Novel Cancer Therapies Lung cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, highlighting the need for new therapies.

Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs), the channels connecting the nucleus to the cytoplasm, are built from 32 different proteins or nucleoporins. Emerging evidence shows that cells modify NPCs and nucleoporins to regulate specific functions, and cancer cells exploit this plasticity to promote tumorigenesis, making them dependent on these alterations and rendering certain nucleoporins key vulnerabilities.

Precision Small-Molecule Targeting Cancers Deficient in Nucleotide-Excision Repair Solid tumors with loss-of-function (LOF) mutations in nucleotide-excision repair (NER) genes—particularly ERCC2—are highly sensitive to illudins. Our lead compound, ITX-121, has shown the best therapeutic index in its class (illudins) based on prior in vitro and in vivo studies.

Targeting BRD2 to Block Therapy-Induced Reprogramming and Immune Evasion in Glioblastoma 2025 : Brain and CNS Cancers Glioblastoma recurrence is driven by therapy-induced reprogramming and an immunosuppressive microenvironment.

Building upon our published work, we hypothesize that inhibiting activity of bromodomain protein, BRD2, post-radiation therapy, offers dual benefits: disrupting cellular reprogramming toward stem-like states and augmenting anti-tumor immunity through senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) activation.

Structured Exercise and Nutritional Guidance in Hispanic/Latino Men with Prostate Cancer: A Pilot Study of SALUD-PC We hypothesize that community-based supervised exercise and nutritional counseling, integrating culturally adapted and patient-directed strategies, will improve physical fitness, metabolic health, and clinical outcomes in Hispanic/Latino (H/L) men with prostate cancer (PCa) undergoing androgen deprivation therapy (ADT).

Targeting MICAL2 For Pancreatic Cancer Therapy Pancreatic cancer (PC) is lethal, treatment-resistant and marked by a KRAS-driven, immune-cold stroma. MICAL2 is overexpressed in >75% of PCs and drives MRTF/SRF transcription. Overexpression predicts poor survival, and boosts KRAS, RTK and EMT signaling.

MICAL2 knock-down (KD) reduces cancer-associated fibroblasts and extracellular matrix, and recruits cycling, granzyme-rich CD8 T cells. CD8 depletion restores tumor growth, and adoptive transfer of MICAL2-KD-derived T cells shrinks tumors, demonstrating immune-mediated control.

Overcoming Stromal Barriers to KRAS Inhibition in Pancreatic Cancer with VDR Agonist Therapy KRAS inhibitors (KRASis) are on track to be FDA approved for use in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA). However, not all patients will realize their full potential due to resistance mechanisms, including stromal activation of compensatory pathways.

The Role of Proteostasis Pathways in Pediatric Leukemia Despite excellent outcomes for many children with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), infants with B-ALL remain difficult to cure. During physiologic development, fetal HSCs activate the heat shock response through heat shock factor 1 (Hsf1) to maintain protein homeostasis (proteostasis) and HSC function.

However, we found that in some contexts, pre-leukemic can co-opt this adaptive mechanism to resist stress and fuel clonal expansion and leukemia.

Targeting ecDNA in High-Risk Medulloblastoma: A High-Throughput Assay to Discover Novel Therapeutic Probes 2025 : Brain and CNS Cancers Extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) drives oncogene amplification and therapy resistance in aggressive cancers, such as Group 3 medulloblastoma (G3 MB), a lethal pediatric brain tumor.

We hypothesize that small molecules capable of selectively reducing or eliminating ecDNA in G3 MB cells will disrupt oncogene-driven tumor growth and uncover novel therapeutic vulnerabilities.

Melanoma and Skin Cancers Pediatric Solid Tumors: Neuroblastoma, Wilms, Ewings etc. Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Family Health Centers of San Diego La Jolla Institute for Immunology Moores Cancer Center, UCSD San Diego State University Novel Approaches, Targets, and Therapeutics Personalized Immunotherapy Founders Bill & Amy Koman, Cure Prize Recipients Rebecca Rakow-Penner MD, PhD (UCSD), Michael McHale MD (UCSD), Former CEO Anne Marbarger* *Not pictured: Anders Dale PhD (UCSD)* The Cure Prize is Curebound’s highest award for bold innovation in cancer research, recognizing Innovative, multi-disciplinary projects that receive major funding of $1,000,000+ to be administered over multiple years.

The first Cure Prize challenge was to develop an innovation that will improve the standard of care for a typically deadly cancer with patient application in 3-5 years.

In June, 2022 Curebound awarded its first Cure Prize: 2023 Cure Prize: Screening for Ovarian Cancer with Advanced Diffusion MRI in Patients at High Risk for Ovarian Cancer In Honor of the Koman Family Scientists: Rebecca Rakow-Penner MD, PhD, Anders Dale, PhD, Michael McHale, MD (UC San Diego) Ovarian cancer is the fifth-most deadly cancer in women in the United States with 60% of cases already metastasized at the time of diagnosis.

Multiple screening programs have been attempted, but none so far have demonstrated survival benefit. This project, led by the brilliant team of doctors Rakow-Penner, Dale and McHale at UC San Diego, will develop a robust screening technique, based on advanced diffusion-weighted MRI, that can non-invasively image ovarian cancers.

This will decrease the need for surgical removal of ovaries from at risk women while offering the promise of novel screening technique for early detection and treatment for all women. “Our project, my passion, is to develop an innovative and advanced MRI protocol specifically tailored to detecting ovarian cancer in its earliest stages.

By harnessing the power of cutting-edge technology, we aim to provide the information to at risk women so they can make informed decisions about their health and specifically about the very difficult decision they face with respect to prophylactic surgery. With the support of Curebound, we aim to significantly improve the outcomes for women facing this formidable challenge.

” - Rebecca Rakow-Penner, MD, PhD View the full Press Release about the 2023 Cure Prize Read the 2023 Research Portfolio Curebound funds innovative, collaborative research between these six cancer research centers in San Diego.

2025 Research Portfolio + Annual Report Curebound Research Program 2022-2023 Evaluation Report Catalyst + Equity Grant Portfolio Curebound Brand Video (Abbreviated) Chief Advancement Officer Job Description Driven to Discover: Catalyst Grant Progress Concert for Cures Sponsorship 2026