Grants

awarded

The METAvivor Research Program was established in 2009 with the specific goal of funding stage IV metastatic breast cancer research to one day, end death from metastatic breast cancer (MBC). The following list includes current and past grant recipients along with their progress reports.

RACHEL STEWART, PhD

University of Kentucky

Characterizing Metastatic Breast Cancer Heterogeneity through Post-Mortem Tissue Collection

Lijuan Sun, PhD

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Presented In Memory of Rebecca McNally Gilden – Blessed mother, wife, daughter, engineer, friend and breast cancer advocate

Reprogramming innate-adaptive immune interactions to eliminate metastatic breast cancer

WEI TAO, PhD

Harvard Medical School/Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Multi-staged delivery system overcoming the physiological barriers for metastatic breast cancer (MBC) therapy

Paolo Tarantino, MD

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Presented by the #LightUpMBC Ambassador Team in Memory of Jessica Moore and all lives lost too soon to MBC

Identifying predictive biomarkers for novel antibody-drug conjugates

Sara Tolaney, MD, MPH

Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers, Dana Farber Institute, Boston, MA

Presented by METAvivors of NJ in Memory of Donna Karlis

Enhancing the immunogenicity of PD-L1+ metastatic HR+ breast cancer via DNA damage

Evanthia Roussos Torres, MD, PhD

University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine, USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center

The Geaton & JoAnn DeCesaris Family Foundation Grant in memory of Kimberly Stafford

Bi-directional translation of differences in the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment of primary versus metastatic HER2+ breast cancer

Thu Truong, PhD

University of Minnesota, Masonic Cancer Center

Presented by MetaRaise DENJPA in Memory of Our Friend Patty Ann Baldwin

Progesterone receptor reprograms metabolic pathways to drive therapy resistant populations in metastatic breast cancer

Ines Velazquez-Quesada, PhD

Temple University, College of Engineering, Bioengineering Department

Presented in memory of Tonyia Lucas and her Hope To Find A Cure

Impact of the neuron – breast cancer cell interactions on the growth and survival of brain metastasis

Theresa Vincent, PhD

Grossman School of Medicine

Presented by The Met Gala Santa Clarita in honor of Eva Miranda Crawford and Amy Steffe Lohmann

Targeting breast cancer brain metastasis using a brain penetrable RNA Polymerase I inhibitor

Nikhil Wagle, MD

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Presented by #LightUpMBC Ambassador team in memory of Jessica Moore

Convergent transcriptional states in resistant ER+ metastatic breast cancer

KAY-UWE WAGNER, Phd

University of Nebraska Medical Center

Identification of Candidate Target Genes for Metastasis and Cancer Cell Dormancy in a Novel Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Model

REBECCA WATTERS, PhD

University of Pittsburgh

Discovery of Clinically Actionable Genes in Breast Cancer Bone Metastases