Stanford Cancer Institute

Funding Opportunities

SCI Innovation Award Submission Deadline:  May 23, 2024

RFA Announced: March 15, 2024
Notification of Selection: August 2024
Funding Period: October 1, 2024 – September 30, 2025

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Vlad and Sandra Shmunis (Credit: Chen Galili)

Shmunis Family Innovation Awards in Cancer Therapeutics

The Shmunis Family Innovation Award supports the bold and creative research of Stanford cancer researchers with award funding of $50,000-$100,000 per project to develop and test potential new therapeutic drug candidates that could lead to early phase clinical trials and transformative new treatments for patients.  This award was made possible by a generous gift from The So Inclined Philanthropic Foundation, the Family Foundation of Vlad and Sandra Shmunis.

Vlad and Sandra Shmunis are deeply committed to cancer research. Cancer is a disease that has unfortunately touched their family and far too many other families around the world. Their goal is to help make an impact by advancing research and bring new cancer therapies – and hope - to cancer patients and families.

Advancing new cancer treatments hinges on the success of a robust research and drug development program. Now more than ever, research and discovery are accelerating at a rapid pace. The SCI is focused on empowering researchers to pursue high-risk, high-reward drug development projects.  

Awardees

  • From inhibition to activation: A novel siglec-based strategy for cancer immunotherapy

    Carolyn Bertozzi, PhD, Baker Family Director of Stanford ChEM-H, Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, was awarded a $50,000 Shmunis Family Innovation Award in Cancer Therapeutics for her project entitled “From inhibition to activation: A novel siglec-based strategy for cancer immunotherapy.”

  • Targeting hyperactive mTORC2 in lung cancer

    Kacper Rogala, PhD, assistant professor of structural biology and of chemical and systems biology, was awarded a $50,000 Shmunis Family Innovation Award in Cancer Therapeutics for his proposal titled “Targeting hyperactive mTORC2 in lung cancer.”

  • Harnessing an E3 ligase for pancreatic cancer therapy

    Steven Corsello, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine (Oncology), was awarded a $50,000 Shmunis Family Innovation Awards in Cancer Therapeutics award for his project entitled “Harnessing an E3 ligase for pancreatic cancer therapy.”

  • “A novel engineered protein therapeutic for treatment of lung adenocarcinoma” Cochran, Jennifer
  • “Improving genome editing technologies to enable chimeric-antigen receptor macrophage (CHARM)-based cellular therapy in cancer” Bhatt, Ami; Bassik, Michael; Bintu, Lacramioara
  • “Biomarkers of immune response in solid tumor patients treated with a novel checkpoint inhibitor combination” Chen, Chris; Satpathy, Ansuman