Therapeutic Development and Accelerator Grants
Pilot projects to accelerate the development of critical scientific discoveries into new approached for the diagnosis and treatment of cancers through therapeutics. Participation by individuals from underrepresented groups is strongly encouraged in all funding mechanisms.
HICCC Accelerating Cancer Therapeutics (ACT)
Focus: Therapeutic development accelerator program that supports projects addressing a clean unmet medical need in cancer. Provides support through funding, education, partnership, and mentorship to advance novel cancer therapies from the lab to the clinic.
Who Should Apply: Columbia University faculty. HICCC senior leadership are eligible to apply.
Award Amount: $80,000 for 1 year.
Applications typically open in September. Up to 3-5 awards expected per cycle.
Past Awardees:
2023 Awardees:
- Wei Min, PhD, Zhilun Zhao, PhD, "Massively multiplexed qPCR for genome-scale screening and diagnostics"
2022 Awardees:
- Marta Galan Diez, PhD, Stavroula Kousteni, PhD (CO-PI), "SAAMIZUMAB: A monoclonal antibody therapy to target the niche and prevent relapse in hematological myeloid malignancies"
- Joseph Garcia, MD, Charles Karan, PhD (CO-PI), "The Annihilator: A first-in-class small molecule treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer"
- Adam Mor, MD, Shalom Lerrer, PhD (CO-PI), "Targeting VRK2 to enhance cancer immunotherapy"
2021 Awardees:
- Riccardo Dalla-Favera, PhD; Claudio Scuoppo, PhD, “NAMPT Inhibitors for Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma”
- Jean Gautier, PhD, Brent Stockwell, PhD, “Mirin-based Inhibitors of the Mre11 Nuclease: targeting the DNA damage response for Cancer Therapy”
2020 Awardees:
- Cory Abate-Shen, PhD, “Development of ATAD2 Inhibitors as a Novel Treatment for Metastatic Prostate Cancer”
- Co-Investigator: Donald Landry, MD
- Adolfo Ferrando, MD, PhD, “NT5C2 Inhibitor to Target Chemotherapy Resistance in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia”
- Co-Investigator: Clara Reglero, PhD
- Yiping Han, PhD, “Antibody Therapy to Treat Orphan Disease Familial Adenomatous Polyposis”
- Co-Investigator: Timothy Wang, MD
- Harris Wang, PhD, “A Multimodal Oral Non-Viral CRISPR-Cas Medical Countermeasure to Enhance Ionizing Radiation Resilience and Survival” (co-funded by CTV)
Irving Cancer Drug Discovery Program (ICDDP)
Focus: A key capacity-building opportunity to stimulate the development, testing, and implementation of innovative scientific discoveries for the diagnosis and treatment of cancers. Projects at any stage of development, from target validation and high throughput screening to preclinical testing and IND-enabling studies, will be considered for support.
Who Should Apply: Full-time Columbia University faculty.
Award Amount: $100,000- $200,000 per year for 1-2 years.
Applications typically open in October. Up to 1-3 awards expected per cycle.
Past Awardees:
2024 Awardee:
- Adam Mor, MD, PhD, "Generation of anti-PAG monoclonal antibodies to treat solid malignancies"
2023 Awardees:
- Jordan S. Orange, MD, PhD, "Optimizing cell therapy for solid tumors by hardwiring cytotoxic cell lytic granule dispersion via genome wide and small molecule screens"
- Michael M. Shen, PhD,"Development of small molecule inhibitors of NSD2"
- Co-Investigator: Donald Landry, MD, PhD
- Peter D. Canoll, MD, PhD, “Advancing a new ferroptosis inducing drug (VP224) to clinical trial for GBM”
- Co-Investigators: Jeffrey N. Bruce, MD; Brent Stockwell, PhD; Peter A. Sims, PhD; Osama Al Dalahmah, MD, PhD
- Swarnali Acharyya, PhD, "Developing the first targeted therapy against cancer cachexia"
- Co-Investigator: Henry M. Colecraft, PhD, professor of physiology and cellular biophysics, and pharmacology