Biden Cancer Moonshot Announces New Cohort of Cancer Moonshot Scholars and Awards $6 Million to the Next Generation of Innovators in Cancer Prevention, Treatment, and Diagnosis

Today, the Biden Cancer Moonshot announced a group of 11 early career researchers and research teams awarded funding for their innovative approaches to cancer prevention, treatment, and diagnosis. Accelerating the fight against cancer is a core component of the President’s Unity Agenda, a set of priorities that Americans from every walk of life can support including beating the opioid epidemic, meeting our sacred obligation to veterans, and ending cancer as we know it.

Through the National Cancer Institute, the Biden-Harris Administration is committing more than $6 million to the second cohort of the Cancer Moonshot Scholars program. With projects in new diagnostics, delivering effective therapies, and improving patient care and outcomes, these ambitious scholars represent an inclusive approach to progress. They are pushing new boundaries to provide optimal care and improved outcomes for those facing cancer, especially for people in underrepresented communities.

President Biden launched the Cancer Moonshot Scholars program in 2022, and the Cancer Moonshot announced the inaugural cohort of scholars last summer. This initiative supports early-career researchers from across the country that represent the diversity of the United States to accelerate progress to end cancer as we know it.

“The Cancer Moonshot Scholars represent the next generation of innovators that will drive us to achieve President Biden’s bold goals to improve outcomes and boost support for those facing cancer,” said Dr. Danielle Carnival, Deputy Assistant to the President for the Cancer Moonshot and Deputy Director for Health Outcomes at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “By ensuring that we are investing in groundbreaking ideas from across the country, we can improve cancer prevention, early detection, treatment, and care and save and extend millions of lives.”

This cohort of Cancer Moonshot Scholars are advancing innovation and patient care for people who are facing lung, brain, blood, and breast cancers—as well as projects to improve treatment and care for all cancers.

Cancer Moonshot Scholars (and Research Teams)

• Hermioni Amonoo, MD, MPP, Brigham and Women’s Hospital will evaluate the impact of phone-delivered psychosocial support in stem cell transplantation survivors for improving anxiety and depression symptoms. 
  
• Ramon Francisco Barajas, MD, Oregon Health & Science University will advance new strategies to monitor and more effectively treat glioblastoma, a deadly brain cancer, through enhanced imaging to better understand the factors responsible for the growth and survival of primary brain tumors.
  
• Miriam Bornhorst, MD, Hayk Barseghyan, PhD, Lurie’s Children’s Hospital of Chicago will advance diagnostic approaches in pediatric brain tumors through optical genome mapping to detect structural variants.
  
• Loretta Erhunmwunsee, MD, City of Hope will examine the impact of structural racism – including pollution exposure and residential segregation – on African American non-small cell lung cancer incidence and progression.
  
• Neha Goel, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center will examine whether structural racism and perceived discrimination are associated with worse breast cancer outcomes, in part, through regulation of genes that respond to adversity and resulting in more aggressive tumor biology.
  
• Dennis Jones, PhD, Boston University will improve anti-tumor immunity in advanced breast cancer by targeting solid stress, the compression of blood vessels in tumors.
  
• Richard Phillips, MD, University of Pennsylvania will develop a framework for novel therapeutic approaches for diffuse midline glioma, a devastating brain cancer, by investigating the cancer’s molecular mechanisms.
  
• Laura C. Pinheiro, PhD, Weill Medical College of Cornell University will study the disparities and social determinants of health that drive cardiovascular outcomes in Black and White cancer survivors to inform interventions designed to eliminate racial disparities and improve outcomes.
  
• Chelsey Schlechter, PhD, MPH, Guilherme Del Fiol, MD, PhD, and David W. Wetter, PhD, MS, Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah will provide critical data on the impact of implementation strategies in increasing access to an evidence-based intervention to reduce obesity in community health center patients.
  
• Kandy Velazquez, PhD, University of South Carolina at Columbia is finding a better way to treat the loss of skeletal muscle mass and function in people facing cancer through a deeper understanding of the immune mechanisms that drive this loss.
  
• Haijiao Zhang, MD, Oregon Health & Science University is researching a better way to treat acute myeloid leukemia through a deeper understanding of the disease’s cellular and molecular mechanisms.

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