The CARE Board has awarded over $10 million in the first cycle of Scientific Discoveries Research grants. The Scientific Discoveries Research grant opportunity seeks to support innovative and meritorious cancer researchers and teams pursuing scientific discoveries and breakthrough ideas in the fight against cancer. This opportunity will not only catalyze the next breakthroughs in cancer research but also may help bridge early discoveries and commercialization of therapeutics, devices, and tools to lessen the burden of cancer. The CARE Board congratulates the inaugural grantees in this category, to support implementation, translational, and outcomes research that advance the application of scientific discoveries and technologies or informs how the application of scientific discoveries impact patients and populations. A total of 11 grantees are awarded up to $10,439,245 as follows: ConnectMyVariant (Principal Investigator: Brian Shirts, MD, PhD) Using large pedigrees to determine variant specific risk, a key to understanding the relationship between breast cancer risk and gene function Maximum Award Amount: $665,600.00 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center (Principal Investigator: Michael Haffner, MD, PhD) Defining targetable vulnerabilities in DNA hypomethylated cancers Maximum Award Amount: $967,688.00 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center (Principal Investigator: Andrew Hsieh, MD) Understanding the role of somatic mosaicism in bladder cancer initiation and the therapeutic response Maximum Award Amount: $1,500,000.00 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center (Principal Investigator: Martin Prlic, PhD) Identification of mechanisms and biomarker predictors of recurrence in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) Maximum Award Amount: $1,399,999.00 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center (Principal Investigator: Joshua Veatch, MD, PhD) T cell intrinsic IL-12 signaling for adoptive T cell therapy of cancer Maximum Award Amount: $250,000.00 Orlance, Inc. (Principal Investigator: Ken Bagley, PhD) Gene Gun Platform for Delivering Neoantigen Cancer Vaccine Maximum Award Amount: $1,454,201.00 Seattle Children’s Research Institute (Principal Investigator: Vandana Kalia, PhD) Balancing safety and efficacy of immunotherapies in neuroblastoma through molecular surrogacy of selective Treg functions Maximum Award Amount: $600,000.00 Seattle Children’s Research Institute (Principal Investigator: Rachel Rau, MD) Advancing precision genomics for pediatric leukemia patients with long read sequencing Maximum Award Amount: $577,125.00 Seattle Children’s Research Institute (Principal Investigator: Stephen Smith, PhD) Harnessing phosphatase activity to minimize toxicity and increase the anti-cancer activity of CAR T cell therapies Maximum Award Amount: $840,560.00 University of Washington (Principal Investigator: Thelma Escobar, PhD) Examining aberrant histone chaperone proteolytic regulation in cancer: new mechanisms and therapeutic potential Maximum Award Amount: $690,872.00 VisionGate, Inc. (Principal Investigator: Alan Nelson, PhD) Optimization of the non-invasive LuCED test for detecting early-stage lung cancer Maximum Award Amount: $1,493,200.00

CARE Fund is soliciting proposals for a consultant to plan, research, develop, and produce a report on Community Based Organizations (CBOs) related to potential funding to promote diversity in clinical trials in Washington State.

CARE Fund grants are designed to promote cancer research and advance transformational research across the cancer research continuum. CARE Fund is proud to highlight Deverra Therapeutics, which received two Life Science Start-Up and Development awards in May 2023. These awards supported the development of CAR-NK cells to treat b-cell leukemia regardless of CD19 expression and the development of engineered allogeneic MPS cell product for treatment of solid tumors. Dr. Colleen Delaney, Principal Investigator, shared that, “As a recipient of a Life Science Start-Up and Development award, we are deeply grateful for this funding – it arrived at a critical moment and provided essential support to keep our research program on track during a pivotal time. It enabled us to maintain steady progress and continue our scientific goals without interruption.” Learn more about this and other past awarded grants here.