Funded Grants

SEED GRANT

Grantee: City of Hope
Co Project Lead: Michael A Caligiuri, MD
Co Project Lead: Yuanyuan Yang, MD
Grant Title: A novel viral and immunological approach to the treatment of glioblastoma
Grant Type: UKF Seed Grant
Year Awarded: 2025-26
Amount: $50,000
Duration: 1 year

Summary: This proposal seeks to combine the two types of therapy for brain tumors. One is a virus that commonly infects the brain and causes disease. However, City of Hope, a national cancer research and treatment organization, has engineered the virus such that it only infects the brain tumor, leaving the normal brain tissue unaffected. When it infects the brain tumor, it explodes, killing tumor cells. Second, City of Hope has engineered the virus to attract immune cells to the brain tumor and, once they arrive, to provide them with an extra charge to kill the brain cancer. The tools City of Hope has developed for these experiments are unique worldwide.