Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy Pilot Grants (for MSK faculty)

Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy Pilot Grants (for MSK faculty) is sponsored by Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI) at MSK. This opportunity supports mission-aligned projects and measurable outcomes.

Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy : PICI Grants | Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI) at MSK issues requests for applications for two internal competition funding mechanisms: Pilot Grants: The PICI Pilot Grant mechanism is intended to provide seed money to MSK faculty members to facilitate experiments that will establish preliminary data to develop novel hypotheses.

This mechanism allows for rapid funding of novel ideas in any area of cancer immunotherapy. Career Development Awards: The PICI Career Development Awards are to encourage and support young investigators (Instructors and Assistant Members) with innovative ideas in cancer immunotherapy.

February 2020 Career Development Awards Studying the epigenetic effect of metabolic stress on CAR T therapy in multiple myeloma Mining the marrow for anti-tumor immunity after hematopoietic transplantation Understanding and overcoming hypoxic conditioning of phagocytosis in the tumor microenvironment Targeting the BCL-2 Family to Improve Immunotherapy Sergio Giralt and Arnab Ghosh Identifying the effects of ipilimumab on T cell reconstitution and anti-myeloma effects in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation Immunologic and genomic characterization of an immunogenic subset of HR+/HER2- human breast cancers Evaluating oncogenic driver effects on tumor immunity through interrogation of the HLA ligandome Targetable inflamm-aging milieu and bone marrow niche senescence in older AML patients in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation – an exploratory analysis Immunogenomic role of homologous recombination deficiency in pancreatic cancer Overcoming treatment resistance to immune checkpoint inhibition of the PD-1/PD-L1 axis in small cell lung cancer Impact of tumor-intrinsic gene expression on natural killer cell February 2019 Career Development Awards Targeting innate immune pathways in triple-negative breast cancer cBioPortal Enhancements to Support Analysis and Visualization of ImmunoOncology Data Microglial Mosaicism in BRAFV600E Glioma Progression Physics-based computational prediction of cancer-associated mutant MHC class II epitopes Justin Cross , Bianca Santomasso Investigating the metabolic basis of neurotoxicity in B-ALL patients treated with CD19-modified CAR T cells Modeling autoimmune side effects of cancer immunotherapy in the GI tract Targeting Cancer Cell Biomechanics to Enhance Anti-Tumor Immune Function Mortiz Kircher , Taha Merghoub Development of an Imaging Technology for in vivo Multiplexed Detection of Key Markers in Immunotherapy Developing 18F labeled PD-1 tracer for rapid in vivo evaluation of PD-L1 expression as a biomarker for immune checkpoint blockade Raphael Pelossof , Julio Garcia-Aguilar Immunological landscape associated with KRAS mutation in colorectal cancer Biomarkers and epigenetic programs defining functionality and re-programmability of PD1hi TIL in human solid tumors Ronglai Shen , Michael Postow Linking peripheral blood T cell phenotype with genomic features and clinical outcome in patients treated with checkpoint inhibition September 2017 Career Development Awards Mechanisms of systemic antitumor immunity induced by intratumoral injection of inactivated vs. live oncolytic vaccinia Microbiota biomarkers & mechanisms of gastrointestinal inflammation: GVHD and checkpoint-blockade colitis Hikmat Al-Ahmadie , Alexandra Snyder, David Solit Exploring intratumoral heterogeneity in urothelial carcinoma and its potential role in resistance to immune check point inhibitors Metabolomics strategies to investigate mechanisms of immunotherapy induced colitis Ronald DeMatteo, Timothy Bowler Determining the presence and activity of immune-suppressive mechanisms in sarcoma Samuel Funt , Darren Feldman , Alexandra Snyder Identifying predictors of response and resistance to checkpoint blockade therapy in patients with relapsed/refractory germ cell tumors Immunogenomic phenotyping of clear cell renal cell carcinoma Investigation of immunoglobulin A coating intestinal bacteria in multiple myeloma Melody Smith , Scott James Induction of tissue-specific tolerance to inhibit graft vs. host responses while retaining graft vs. malignancy using synthetic biology approach Project: Neoadjuvant and adjuvant checkpoint blockade in patients with clinical stage III or oligometastatic stage IV melanoma Project: The landscape of somatic mutations in melanoma tumor infiltrating lymphocytes Project: Neoantigen-directed vaccination for multiple myeloma Project: Study of a nonconventional subset of suppressive CD4+ T cell as a parameter to optimize treatment with checkpoint blockade October 2016 Pilot Grants Project: Immune correlative assays for phase Ib/II study of durvalumab and chemoradiation for locally advanced esophageal and gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma Project: Therapy-induced senescence and immune cell surveillance of KRAS mutant cancers Project: BCG Therapy of Bladder Cancer – Role of Tumor Antigens in Clinical Response Project: Integrated Proteogenomic Discovery of the Cancer Antigen-Omes of MSS and MSI Colorectal Adenocarcinomas for Diagnostic and Immunotherapeutic Monitoring Project: Defining immune profiles across cerebrospinal fluid, tumor, and blood in patients with brain tumors Project: Determining the ligandome of T cell receptors and T cell receptor mimic antibodies Project: Beta-2 microglobulin alterations and primary or secondary resistance to immune checkpoint inhibition in melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer Project: Impact of tumor-intrinsic gene expression on natural killer cell responses against cancer Project: Thymic regenerative strategies to enhance cancer immunotherapy with checkpoint blockade