Bridge Project researchers characterized cells involved in the immune system’s response to lung cancer, finding that progenitor T cells (magenta and yellow) are key to driving patient response to immune checkpoint blockade therapy. Credit: Megan Burger, Cecily C. Ritch, Giorgio Gaglia, Sandro Santagata, Tyler Jacks (2022 Image Award winner)
Visit our Award Types and RFAs page to learn more about Traditional, Footbridge and Expansion grant types.
Traditional Bridge Project grants
“The role of follistatins in regulating the ovarian cancer immune microenvironment,” a collaboration between David Pépin of Massachusetts General Hospital and Robert Weinberg of MIT.
“Advancing new therapeutic strategies for pediatric central nervous system tumors,” a collaboration of Pratiti (Mimi) Bandopadhayay and Susan Chi of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center with Paula Hammond and Joelle Straehla of the Koch Institute.
“Discovery and identification of optimized second-generation human CAR T cells for solid tumors,” a collaboration between Marcela Maus of Massachusetts General Hospital and Michael Birnbaum of the Koch Institute.
"A rapidly clinically translatable, closed-loop drug delivery system to minimize pharmacokinetic variability and improve clinical outcomes," a collaboration of Douglas Rubinson of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute with Giovanni Traverso and Robert Langer of MIT/the Koch Insitute
"Developing a CAR-Engager platform to image CAR T cells in real time, and to enhance CAR T cells’ persistence and activity," a collaboration between Mohammad Rashidian of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Michael Hemann of the Koch Institute
“Urothelial and Bladder Cancer Detection using Nanosensor Enabled Chemical Cystoscopy (NECC),” a collaboration of Daniel Wollin and Mark Preston of Brigham and Women's Hospital with Michael Strano of MIT.
Footbridge grants
“Understanding the microenvironmental dependence on Kdm2a to improve treatment of Breast Cancer Brain Metastasis,” a collaboration between Kornelia Polyak of Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and Matthew Vander Heiden of the Koch Institute.
“Theranostic Platform for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer,” a collaboration of Peter Caravan and Kenneth Tanabe of Massachusetts General Hospital and DF/HCC with Ronald Raines of MIT.
“Targeting SOX9 in Colorectal Cancer,” a collaboration between Nilay Sethi of DF/HCC and Angela Koehler of the Koch Institute.
“Targeting oncogene-limited water content regulation for novel cancer therapy,” a collaboration between Keith Ligon of DF/HCC and Scott Manalis of the Koch Institute.
“Modeling the impact of transposons on the origins of colon cancer,” a collaboration between Kathleen Burns of DF/HCC and Ömer Yilmaz of the Koch Institute.
“Exploiting Acute Metabolic Vulnerabilities in Response to Androgen Deprivation to Drive Prostate Cancer Apoptosis,” a collaboration of Steven Balk and Daniel Schmidt of DF/HCC and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center with Matthew Vander Heiden of the Koch Institute.
“Harnessing STING activation to develop novel natural killer cell-based therapy,” a collaboration among David Barbie of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and DF/HCC, Daniela Dinalescu Brigham and Women’s Hospital and DF/HCC, and Paula Hammond of the Koch Institute.
Expansion Bridge Grants
"An implantable microdevice to measure multiple drug responses and predict optimal therapy in triple negative breast cancer patients," a collaboration between Oliver Jonas and Elizabeth Mittendorf of Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Michael Yaffe and Matthew Vander Heiden of the Koch Institute.
Traditional Bridge Project grants
"Characterizing novel human HLA-immunopeptidomes from a current clinical trial in human glioblastoma (GBM)," a collaboration between Forest M. White and Darrell Irvine of the Koch Institute, David A. Reardon of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and E. Antonio Chiocca of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Brigham and Women's Hospital
"Genomic newborn screening for cancer predisposition syndromes associated with very early onset childhood cancers," a collaboration between Lisa Diller of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Richard Parad of Brigham and Women's Hospital, and David Housman of the Koch Institute
"Ovarian tumor-targeting nanocarriers for safe directed delivery of potent combination inhibitor therapy," a collaboration between Paula Hammond of the Koch Institute and Joan Brugge of Harvard Medical School
"Nanotherapeutics to target the mesenchymal state in pediatric solid tumors," a collaboration between Paula Hammond of the Koch Institute and Kimberly Stegmaier of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and Boston Children's Hospital
"Translating AI lung cancer risk models into the clinic," a collaboration between Regina Barzilay of the Koch Institute and Lecia V. Sequist of Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and Massachusetts General Hospital
"Highly multiplexed, spatially-resolved tissue imaging of genetically engineered mouse models of cancer to discover and characterize immune regulators of tumorigenesis," a collaboration between Tyler Jacks of the Koch Institute, Sandro Santagata of Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Peter Sorger of Harvard Medical School
Footbridge grants
"Optimizing mRNA encoded bispecific antibody therapy for NSCLC," a collaboration between Daniel Anderson of the Koch Institute and David Barbie and Eric Smith of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
"Novel optical approaches to surveil tumor metabolic microenvironments," a collaboration between Gary Yellen of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and Matthew Vander Heiden of the Koch Institute
"Urothelial and bladder cancer detection using nanosensor enabled chemical cystoscopy (NECC)," a collaboration between Michael S. Strano of MIT and Daniel A. Wollin and Mark A. Preston of Brigham and Women's Hospital
"The spatial structure of host-microbe interactions at developing colorectal tumors," a collaboration between Paul C. Blainey of the Koch Institute, Wendy S. Garrett of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Curtis Huttenhower of the Harvard School of Public Health
"Reversing immune suppression associated with tumor cell-intrinsic activation of WNT/β-catenin," a collaboration between Rizwan Haq of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Stefani Spranger of the Koch Institute
"Exploring alveolar macrophages as vehicles for collecting tumor DNA to improve early diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer," a collaboration between Sangeeta Bhatia of the Koch Institute, Lecia Sequist of Massachusetts General Hospital, and Viktor Adalsteinsson of the Broad Institute
"Noninvasive imaging of CAR T cells in real time," a collaboration between Mohammad Rashidian of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Michael Hemann of the Koch Institute
Expansion Bridge grants
“Phase II study of pembrolizumab in combination with infliximab for the treatment of metastatic melanoma and prevention of adverse events,” a collaboration between Michael Dougan and Ryan J. Sullivan of Massachusetts General Hospital and Michael Birnbaum of the Koch Institute.
Traditional Bridge Project grants
“The development of potent ALK CAR-T cells to eradicate Neuroblastoma,” a collaboration between Darrell J. Irvine of the Koch Institute and Roberto Chiarle of Boston Children's Hospital.
“Identification of PRMT5 regulated pathways and resistance mechanisms in Merkel cell carcinoma,” a collaboration between Jacqueline Lees of the Koch Institute and James A. DeCaprio of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“Exploiting pathogen-associated nucleic acids to trigger immunity against non-immunogenic colorectal cancer,” a collaboration between Judith Agudo of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Vikram Deshpande and Cristina Ferrone of Massachusetts General Hospital, and Ömer Yilmaz of the Koch Institute.
Footbridge grants
“Transcriptomic perturbations by a new class of HDAC complex inhibitors at single-cell resolution,” a collaboration between Alex K. Shalek of the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science and the Koch Institute and Marc Vidal of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“Microneedle patches for noninvasive cancer screening via interstitial fluid miRNAs,” a collaboration between Kevin Elias of Brighan and Women's Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Darrell Irvine and Paula Hammond of the Koch Institute.
“Identifying determinants of immunotherapy response in ovarian cancer using a novel genetically defined immunocompetent mouse model,” a collaboration between Robert Weinberg of the Whitehead and Koch Institutes and David Pepin of Massachusetts General Hospital.
“A deep learning model for lung cancer detection and risk prediction from computed tomography,” a collaboration between Regina Barzilay of the MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Lab and the Koch Institute and Lecia V. Sequist of Massachusetts General Hospital.
“Highly multiplexed, spatially-resolved tissue imaging of genetically engineered mouse models of cancer to discover and characterize immune regulators of tumorigenesis,” a collaboration between Tyler Jacks of the Koch Institute, Sandro Santagata of Brighan and Women's Hospital and Peter Sorger of Harvard Medical School.
“Targeting phase separated condensates in cohesin-mutant myeloid malignancies,” a collaboration between Zuzana Tothova of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Richard Young of the Whitehead and Koch Institutes.
Traditional Bridge Project grants
“A patient-centered approach to dissecting and overcoming resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors,” a collaboration between Aviv Regev of Broad institute of MIT and Harvard and the Koch Institute, and Bruce Johnson and Benjamin Izar of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“Nanocarriers for safe targeted delivery of potent inhibitor combinations,” a collaboration between Paula Hammond of the Koch Institute, Joan Brugge of Harvard Medical School, and Ursula Matulonis of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“Credentialing aneuploidy as a prognostic biomarker in prostate cancer,” a collaboration between Angelika Amon of the Koch Institute, Lorelei Mucci of the Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health, Matthew Vander Heiden of the Koch Institute, and Massimo Loda of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“Optimizing Plk1 therapeutics for clinical translation,” a collaboration between Steven Balk and David Einstein of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Michael Yaffe of the Koch Institute.
“Nanoparticle-mediated drug delivery to ovarian cancer organoid cultures,” a collaboration between Alan D’Andrea of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Paula Hammond and Darrell Irvine of the Koch Institute.
Footbridge grants
“Identification of PRMT5 regulated pathways and resistance mechanisms,” a collaboration between Jacqueline Lees of the Koch Institute and James DeCaprio of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“Development of small molecule degraders targeting Hepatitis B virus,” a collaboration between Angela Koehler of the Koch Institute and Priscilla Yang of the Harvard Medical School.
“Early multiplexed functional testing of patient-derived pancreatic cancer organoids to investigate tumor heterogeneity and therapeutic sensitivity,” a collaboration between Scott Manalis of the Koch Institute, and William Hahn, Srivatsan Raghavan, Brian Wolpin, and Andrew Aguirre of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“Conditionally replicating HSV-1 regulated by multi-input genetic circuits to identify and target glioblastoma,” a collaboration between Anna Krichevsky of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Ron Weiss of the Koch Institute.
“Selective drug delivery to pediatric high-grade gliomas: Leveraging parallel genetic and mechanistic screens for rationally designed nanotherapeutics,” a collaboration between Paula Hammond of the Koch Institute, Daphne Haas-Kogan of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children’s Hospital, and Pratiti (Mimi) Bandopadhayay of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“Systematic examination of the metabolic competition between immune cells and cancer cells in tumors,” a collaboration between Matthew Vander Heiden of the Koch Institute and Oliver Jonas of Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Traditional Bridge Project grants
“Traditional Bridge Dynamic Therapeutic Network Re-Wiring of Apoptotic Signaling Pathways to Improve the Efficacy of Frontline Chemotherapy for Treatment of Triple Negative Breast Cancer, ” a collaboration between Gerburg Wulf of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Michael Yaffe of the Koch Institute.
“Developing Next-Generation Personal Neoantigen-targeting Vaccines for Treatment of Patients with Metastatic Cancer,” a collaboration between Catherine Wu of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Bradley Pentelute of the Koch Institute, and Patrick Ott of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“Evolution of Tumor and Immune Microenvironment in the Central Nervous System During Immune Checkpoint Blockade,” a collaboration between Priscilla Brastianos of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Scott Carter of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Alex Shalek of the Koch Institute.
“The CLEC2D-KLRB1 Interaction as a Novel Target for Immunotherapy of Glioblastoma,” a collaboration between Kai Wucherpfennig of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Mario Suva of Massachusetts General Hospital, Aviv Regev of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Dane Wittrup of the Koch Institute.
Footbridge grants
“Deciphering Obesity-Mediated Immune Evasion Mechanisms in Colorectal Tumorigenesis,” a collaboration between Judith Agudo of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Vikram Deshpande of Massachusetts General Hospital, and Ömer Yilmaz of the Koch Institute.
“Development of Novel Androgen Receptor Antagonists for Treatment of Advanced Prostate Cancer,” a collaboration between Angela Koehler of the Koch Institute and Steven Balk of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
“Targeting the Hippo Signaling Pathway in Pancreatic Cancer,” a collaboration between Angela Koehler of the Koch Institute and Fernando Camargo of Boston Children's Hospital.
“DHODH Inhibitors in the Treatment of Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia: Linking Pyrimidine Metabolism and Myeloid Differentiation,” a collaboration between Matthew Vander Heiden of the Koch Institute and David Sykes of Massachusetts General Hospital.
“Using Platinum-Loaded Microdevices to Identify Targetable Vulnerabilities in Ileal Carcinoid Tumors,” a collaboration between Michael Hemann of the Koch Institute, Oliver Jonas of Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Jennifer Chan of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Expansion Bridge grants
“Quantitative Tumor Oxygen Measurements in Cervical Cancer Patients,” a collaboration between Michael Cima of the Koch Institute, and Robert Cormack, Larissa Lee, and Ehud Schmidt of Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Traditional Bridge Project grants
“Targeting Breast Cancer Cell Metabolism to Treat Brain Metastases,” a collaboration between Rakesh Jain of Massachusetts General Hospital and Matthew Vander Heiden of the Koch Institute.
“Large Fingerprint Cancer Screening in Blood,” a collaboration between J. Christopher Love of the Koch Institute and Mike Makrigiorgos and Heather Parsons of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“Targeting Aberrant Chromatin Structure in Cohesin-Mutated Myelodysplastic Syndrome,” a collaboration between Benjamin Ebert of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Richard Young of the Whitehead and Koch Institutes.
Footbridge grants
“Predicting Cancer Risk After Multi-Gene Panel Testing, Across All Cancer Types,” a collaboration between Regina Barzilay of MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Lab, Kevin Hughes of Massachusetts General Hospital, and Giovanni Parmigiani of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard School of Public Health.
“Quantitative microRNA Profiling in Cancer with Single Cell Resolution,” a collaboration between Patrick Doyle of the Koch Institute and Frank Slack of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
“Novel Acute Myeloid Leukemia Differentiation Therapies Targeting Nucleosome Organization,” a collaboration between Andrew Lane of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Angela Koehler of the Koch Institute.
“Developing PRMT5 Inhibitors with Improved Blood-Brain Barrier Penetration for Brain Tumor Treatment,” a collaboration between Jacqueline Lees of the Koch Institute and Jun Qi of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Pediatric Brain Tumors Project awardees
“The DF/HCC-MIT Super Team Initiative for the Advancement of Diagnostics and Combination Therapeutics in Pediatric Brain Tumors,” a collaboration between Viktor Adalsteinsson, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Rameen Beroukhim, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Paul Blainey, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Paula Hammond, Koch Institute, Keith Ligon, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, J. Christopher Love, Koch Institute, Karen Wright, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Michael Yaffe, Koch Institute.
“Targeting the Microenvironment of Pediatric High Grade Gliomas," a collaboration between Linda Griffith of the Koch Institute and MIT’s departments of Biological Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, Douglas Lauffenburger of the Koch Institute and MIT’s department of Biological Engineering, and Rosalind Segal, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“Engineering Synthetic Promoters and Viruses for Pediatric Glioma-specific Immunotherapy,” a collaboration between Samuel Rabkin of Massachusetts General Hospital, and Timothy Lu of the Koch Institute and MIT’s departments of Biological Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Expansion Bridge grants
“Inducing Non-Cell Autonomous Killing to Overcome Drug Resistance in Double-Hit Lymphoma,” a collaboration between David Weinstock of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Michael Hemann of the Koch Institute, and Ann LaCasce of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“A Phase I Clinical Trial Using an ALK Peptide Vaccine for ALK-Rearranged Non-Small Cell Lung Cancers,” a collaboration between Mark Awad of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Roberto Chiarle of Children’s Hospital Boston.
Traditional Bridge Project grants
“Dendrimer-Replicon mRNA Nanoparticles to Deliver Neoantigen Vaccines in a Mouse Model of Pancreatic Cancer,” a collaboration between Daniel Anderson of the Koch Institute and Stephanie Dougan of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“Designing Treatments for SMARCA4/BRG1-Mutant Lung Cancers,” a collaboration between Carla Kim of Children’s Hospital Boston, Tyler Jacks of the Koch Institute, and Alice Shaw of Massachusetts General Hospital.
“Targeting Transcriptional Amplification for the Treatment of Small Cell Lung Cancer Using a CDK7 Inhibitor,” a collaboration between Nathanael Gray of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Kwok-Kin Wong of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Richard Young of the Whitehead and Koch Institutes.
“Systematic Discovery of Combination Immunotherapies for Melanoma,” a collaboration between Chris Love of the Koch Institute, Alex Shalek of the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science at MIT, Kai Wucherpfennig of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Guo-Cheng Yuan of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“Nanoparticle-Mediated RNAi Therapy in Bone Marrow to Prevent Multiple Myeloma Colonization,” a collaboration between Ruben Carrasco of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Robert Langer of the Koch Institute.
Footbridge grants
“Predicting Drug Sensitivity in Lung Cancer by Single Mass Accumulation,” a collaboration between Pasi Janne of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Scott Manalis of the Koch Institute.
“Modulating the Heat-Shock Machinery to Limit Genetic Heterogeneity and the Evolution of Drug Resistance in Highly Malignant Cancers,” a collaboration between Rameen Beroukhim of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Susan Lindquist of the Whitehead and Koch Institutes, and Sandro Santagata of Brigham and Women's Hospital.
“Targeting Breast Cancer Cell Metabolism to Treat Brain Metastases,” a collaboration between Rakesh Jain of Massachusetts General Hospital and Matthew Vander Heiden of the Koch Institute.
“Investigating MELK as a Novel Therapeutic Target in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer,” a collaboration between Angelika Amon of the Koch Institute and Jean Zhao of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“A novel in vivo assay to define personalized multi-drug combination therapy for advanced prostate cancer,” a collaboration between Steven Balk of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Glenn Bubley of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Akash Patnaik of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Michael Yaffe of the Koch Institute, and Xin Yuan of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
“Targeting chemoresistant disease in AML,” a collaboration between Michael Hemann of the Koch Institute and Kimberly Stegmaier of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
“Targeting minimal residual disease in acute leukemias,” a collaboration between Scott Manalis of the Koch Institute and David Weinstock of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
“Development of an ALK Vaccine for Lung Cancer Treatment,” a collaboration between Roberto Chiarle of Boston Children's Hospital and Darrell Irvine of the Koch Institute
“Development of a Prototype Instrument Based on a Second-window Near-infrared Fluorescence Optical Imaging Modality for Detection and Monitoring of Deep-tissue Ovarian and Pancreatic Cancers,” a collaboration between Angela Belcher of the Koch Institute, Michael Birrer of Massachusetts General Hospital, and Marcela del Carmen of Massachusetts General Hospital
“Novel Agents for Targeting MCL-1 in Adult AML/ALL,” a collaboration between Amy Keating of MIT Department of Biology, Loren Walensky of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Anthony Letai of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
“Targeting Transcriptional Amplification for the Treatment of SCLC Using a CDK7 Inhibitor,” a collaboration between Nathanael Gray of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Kwok-Kin Wong of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Rick Young of the Whitehead and Koch Institutes
“Detection of 'Invisible' Nevi in Redheads,” a collaboration between Peter So of the MIT Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Biological Engineering, Conor Evans of Massachusetts General Hospital, and David Fisher of Massachusetts General Hospital
“Developing Novel Therapeutic Approaches in Small Cell Lung Carcinoma Using Genetically Engineered Mouse Models and Human Circulating Tumor Cells,” a collaboration between Tyler Jacks of the Koch Institute, Jeffrey Engelman of Massachusetts General Hospital, and Daniel Haber of Massachusetts General Hospital
“Osmotic Micro-Pump as Delivery System for Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy in the Treatment of Advanced Ovarian Cancer,” a collaboration between Michael Cima of the Koch Institute, Michael Birrer of Massachusetts General Hospital, and Marcela Del Carmen of Massachusetts General Hospital
“Targeting Mutant IDH1 in Malignant Gliomas,” a collaboration between Matthew Vander Heiden of the Koch Institute, William G. Kaelin, Jr. of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Daniel Cahill of Massachusetts General Hospital
“A Pancreatobiliary Chemotherapy Eluting Stent for Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinomas,” a collaboration between Jeffrey W. Clark of Massachusetts General Hospital, Robert S. Langer of the Koch Institute, and Elazer Edelman of the Institute of Medical Engineering and Sciences at MIT and the Koch Institute
“Angiotensin Receptor Blockers (ARBs) as a Novel Approach to Improve Drug Delivery in the Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer,” a collaboration between Rakesh K. Jain of Massachusetts General Hospital and Robert S. Langer of the Koch Institute
“Novel Immunotherapies Against Pancreatic Cancer,” a collaboration between Hidde Ploegh of the Whitehead and Koch Institutes, Kai W. Wucherpfennig of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and J. Christopher Love of the Koch Institute
“Single-Cell Functional, Genomic and Transcriptomic Analysis in Glioblastoma,” a collaboration between Keith L. Ligon of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, J. Christopher Love of the Koch Institute, and Matthew Meyerson of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute
