Current Grant Recipients
Ohio Cancer Research is proud to have awarded over $8 million in new seed money grants. With these foundational investments, OCR has kickstarted the research careers of 171 investigators across 175 projects and helped ensure their future success as they bring new and innovative ideas to the cure, prevention, and treatment of cancer.
2023-2025 Grant Recipients
“Our funded project with OCR will focus on utilizing IL-12 secreting myeloid cells and immune checkpoint blockade for the activation of cytotoxic cells to kill glioma cells before they undergo malignant progression. Having the support of OCR is critical for our ability to develop these novel innate immunotherapies.”
Prajwal Rajappa, MD, MS, Principal Investigator in the Institute for Genomic Medicine at Nationwide Children’s Hospital has been pledged $80,000 for his research project, IL-12 Secreting Genetically Modified Myeloid Cells and Immune Checkpoint Blockade to Prevent Glioma Malignant Progression.
“Breast cancer is the most common cancer in females, affecting one in every eight women and accounting for the majority of cancer-related deaths in women worldwide. The generous funding from Ohio Cancer Research will pave the way for our research to receive federal funding and to improve breast cancer patient outcomes by developing novel prevention strategies.”
Mihriban Karaayvaz, PhD, of the Genomic Medicine Institute at the Lerner Research Institute at the Cleveland Clinic has been pledged $80,000 for her research project, Modulation of Mechanosignaling in the Prevention of BRCA1/2 Mutant Breast Cancer.
“Pancreatic cancer remains one of deadliest forms of cancer in the United States with a 5-year survival rate of less than 10 percent. The generous funding from Ohio Cancer Research will lay the groundwork for our research to receive federal funding and help to improve outcomes for pancreatic cancer patients.”
Shi-He Liu, MD, Assistant Professor in Cell and Cancer Biology at the University of Toledo has been pledged $80,000 for his research project, Engineering Exosome for Pancreatic Cancer Targeting Therapies.
2022-2024 Grant Recipients
“Sponsorship from Ohio Cancer Research will allow us to use the novel models of adrenocortical carcinoma developed in our lab to understand the mechanisms of disease progression. We can then use these findings to identify new targets to improve outcomes for patients with this devastating disease.”
Priya Dedhia, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor in Surgery in the College of Medicine at The Ohio State University has been pledged $60,000 for her research project, Intratumoral Heterogeneity in Adrenocortical Carcinoma.
“The seed funding from Ohio Cancer Research is tremendous for a new investigator to test bold ideas. With this important support, I hope to light up cancer cells using advanced molecular imaging and discover new cancer vulnerabilities for effective cancer treatment.”
Liangqi Xie, PhD, Assistant Staff in Cancer Biology in the Lerner Research Institute at the Cleveland Clinic has been pledged $60,000 for his research project, Targeting BET Protein-Regulated MYC Extrachromosomal DNA in Colon Cancer.