Fellowship Application Guidelines
Fellowships from NCC are established at $40,000 per annum for post-doctoral awards, and are awarded annually. Fellowships are intended for applicants under age 35 with less than two years of post- doctoral laboratory experience, except in extenuating circumstances. Fellowships are also limited to applicants having received no more than one prior fellowship or one career development award. Individuals receiving concurrent support from another organization are not eligible to apply.
Preference will be given to studies that have direct relevance to the diagnosis and treatment of human cancer.
Fellowship awards are not necessarily restricted to salary. Depending on the circumstances, part of the funds may be used for supplies or other valid expenses, which should be listed in the proposed budget. NCC reserves the right to delete any item it deems inappropriate.
The fellowship may be transferable upon application and review, in the event that the fellow leaves the sponsoring organization.
Fellowships generally are extended for a second year. However, adequate progress must have been demonstrated during the first year as evidenced through a progress report submitted with renewal application. Awards are limited to one per laboratory. There can be several different applications if they are on different topics. However, only one award could be made per lab in any round of applications.
NCC fellowship grants do not include funds for institutional overhead and a statement by the institution accepting this condition is required.
National Cancer Center 2021/2022 Grants
The following post-doc fellowship grants and renewals were approved for 2021/2022
Gretchen M Alicea, Ph.D.
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
PROJECT: Dissecting the role of lipid metabolism in metastasis and immune therapy efficacy in older melanoma patients
$40,000
Chiwei Xu, Ph.D.
The Rockefeller University, New York, NY
PROJECT: Crosstalk between epithelial stem cells and peripheral nerves in cancer
$40,000
Elena Grossi, Ph.D.
Icahn School of Medicine, New York, NY
PROJECT: Profiling SWI/SNF complex mutations in melanoma initiation
$40,000
Carmen Adriaens, Ph.D.
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
PROJECT: Targeting DMNT1 to induce anti-cancer gene expression programs and synthetic lethality
$40,000
Narek Darabedian, Ph.D.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA
PROJECT: Covalent manipulation of undrugged metabolic proteins to treat cancer
$40,000
Robin Armstrong, Ph.D.
Memorial Sloan Kettering, New York, NY
PROJECT: Determining differential roles for p53 loss-of-function and R270H mutants during leukemia development
$40,000
Varadha Belaji Venkadakrishnan, Ph.D.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA
PROJECT: Collaboration between EZH2 and DNA methyltransferase to drive lineage programming in advanced prostate cancer
$40,000
Manqi Zhang, Ph.D.
Duke University, Durham, NC
PROJECT: Loss of ALK4 promotes EMT through regulation of Golgi-mediated receptor glycosylation in pancreatic cancer
“Loss of ALK4 function via mutation of loss of expression is a frequent event in pancreatic cancer and associated with poor clinical outcomes. The NCC grant allows me to study the mechanism by which loss of ALK4 function contributes to cancer progression and metastasis.”
$42,000
Ibtehaj Naqvi, M.D., Ph.D.
Duke University, Durham, NC
PROJECT: Mitigating inflammation using nucleic acid scavengers to prevent breast cancer metastasis
“I am studying how chronic inflammation promotes breast cancer metastasis and I am using a novel polymer-based approach to block this chronic inflammation and prevent breast cancer metastasis.”
$42,000
Sohini Chakraborty, Ph.D.
New York Univ School of Medicine, New York, NY
PROJECT: Therapeutic targeting of stem cells in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia
“I am studying how the cell surface protein CD97 promotes stem cell function in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia, and if it may be therapeutically targeted with antibodies.”
$42,000
Mireia Perez Verdaguer, Ph.D.
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
PROJECT: Improving the Tumor-Suppressing Efficacy of EGFR Antibodies on Head-and-Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma
“Despite the well-established role of EGFR in tumorigenesis, Cetuximab, a therapeutic EGFR antibody, helps only a small fraction of patients. This project aims to understand whether inhibition of stress-induced signaling processes may increase accessibility of EGFR to Cetuximab and improve its antitumoral effectiveness.”
$42,000
David M. Gau, Ph.D.
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
PROJECT: Profilin-1 as a Target for Vascular Normalization and Treatment for Renal Cell Carcinoma
“A common theme of clear cell renal cell carcinoma, the most common subtype of kidney cancer, is the highly vascularized nature of the tumor environment. Anti-angiogenic treatments for this type of cancer typically will see cancer progression due to innate resistant mechanisms. I was interested in this project due to my previous PhD work on identifying fundamental targets to regulate blood vessel formation, that is, targeting processes that have limited alternative mechanisms.”
$42,000
Giulia Cova, Ph.D.
New York University Medical Center, New York, NY
PROJECT: Defining the mechanisms by which genetic alterations in CTCF and CTCFL drive oncogenic transcription programs
“DNA is packaged within the nucleus in a highly organized manner which is important for gene regulation. Appropriate DNA folding relies on the architectural protein CTCF that is frequently genetically altered in cancer. The goal of my project is to understand how these lesions contribute to oncogenic programs.”
$42,000
William Maguire, M.D., Ph.D.
University of Pittsburgh
PROJECT: Biomarkers of sulforaphane for therapeutic prevention of melanoma
“My research interests comprise early phase drug development in the field of therapeutic prevention of melanoma. The lack of systemic agents to prevent melanoma represents an important unmet need, given that the incidence of melanoma in the United States continues to rise more rapidly than that of most other common cancers.”
$42,000
David Frankhouser, Ph.D.
Beckman Institute, City of Hope, CA
PROJECT: Detecting Neovascularity in MRI to identify and predict breast cancer
$42,000
James Kaminsky, Ph.D.
Boston Children’s Hospital
PROJECT: Identification of Immunological Circuits that regulate cGvHD
$42,000