DCTD Announces Precision Medicine Initiative Administrative Supplement Grantees

In 2016, President Obama announced a Precision Medicine Initiative® (PMI) to advance health and treatments for disease through research that considers an individual’s genes, lifestyle, and environment. The PMI provided FY2016 resources to FDA and NIH, including funding for NCI to focus research in precision medicine in oncology. Discussions and collaborations among staff across NCI’s divisions led to the development of NCI’s PMI oncology strategic areas. As part of NCI’s contribution to this initiative, DCTD directed new funding towards expanding its portfolio of genomic-based clinical trials, improving our understanding of resistance to targeted agents and drug combinations, and developing a mechanistic understanding of immunotherapy. The PMI was also focused on improving pre-clinical models for evaluating targeted therapeutics. Finally, a major component of this overall effort was the 2016 launch of NCI’s Genomic Data Commons (GDC), which is a data sharing platform for precision medicine in oncology. Molecular data from DCTD-supported clinical trials will be deposited into the GDC in order to foster and encourage data mining and secondary analyses by a broad range of investigators.

To begin this initiative, and to accelerate progress in multiple areas, DCTD announced a series of administrative 1-year supplement awards for 2016. Eligible parent grants for these supplements included P30 (Cancer Centers), P50 (SPORES), and UM1 / U10 Cooperative Agreements (Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network - ETCTN and National Clinical Trials Network - NCTN, respectively). In total, 53 awards were made for this supplement initiative from a total of 144 applications. In the coming years, DCTD hopes to spark increased activity in the areas that were supplemented in 2016 by issuing Requests for Applications (RFAs) on these topics.

The six scientific areas that were supplemented in September 2016 and the projects’ Principal Investigators (PIs) are listed below:

Improvements and Optimization of T-cell Therapies and cGMP Manufacturing Processes for Production of Autologous T-cell Therapy Products Targeting Solid Cancers

Project PI(s)	Parent Grant PI	Institution
Chantale Bernatchez, Elizabeth Shpall	Ronald DePinho	University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Linda Kelley, James Mulé	Thomas A. Sellers	H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute
Isabelle Rivière, Michel Sadelain	Craig B. Thompson	Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research

Biomarker Studies Associated with NCI-supported Clinical Trials of Immunotherapy

Project PI(s)	Parent Grant PI	Institution
Michael B. Atkins, Geoffrey T. Gibney	Louis M. Weiner	Georgetown University
Lisa H. Butterfield	Nancy E. Davidson	University of Pittsburgh
Martin (Mac) Cheever	Gary D. Gilliland	Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Sandra P. D’Angelo	Monica M. Bertagnolli	Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology
Thomas Gajewski	Michelle M. Le Beau	University of Chicago
David Gerber	Melanie H. Cobb	University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center
F. Stephen Hodi	Edward J. Benz	Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Michael Lim	Stuart A. Grossman	Adult Brain Tumor Consortium
Patricia M. LoRusso	Peter G. Schulam	Yale University
Emanuel Maverakis, Joseph Tuscano	Ralph W. de Vere White	University of California, Davis
Kunle Odunsi	Kunle Odunsi	Roswell Park Cancer Institute
Ravi Salgia	Steven T. Rosen	Beckman Research Institute/City of Hope
Ignacio I. Wistuba	Ronald A. DePinho	University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center

Mechanisms of Cancer Sensitivity and Resistance to Therapy Utilizing Samples and Information from Human Clinical Trials

Project PI(s)	Parent Grant PI	Institution
Nathalie Agar, Jann Sarkaria, Forest White	Tyler Jacks	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Carlos L. Arteaga	Carlos L. Arteaga	Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Himisha Beltran, Martin Gleave, Susan Halabi, Alexander Wyatt	Monica M. Bertagnolli	Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology
Brian J. Druker	Brian J. Druker	Oregon Health & Science University
Felix Fang	Alan Ashworth	University of California, San Francisco
Christos Hatzis, Lajos Pusztai	Peter G. Schulam	Yale University
Ross Levine	Craig B. Thompson	Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research
Don Nguyen, Katerina Politi, Narendra Wajapeyee	Roy S. Herbst	Yale University, SPORE grant
Katherine Pogue-Geile	Norman Wolmark	NRG Oncology Foundation, Inc
Thomas Witzig	Robert B. Diasio	Mayo Clinic Cancer Center

Administrative Supplements for Research in Canine Immunotherapy via Collaboration of NCI-designated Cancer Centers and Veterinary Medical Colleges

Project PI(s)	Parent Grant PI	Institution
Amy Heimberger	Ronald A. DePinho	University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Katherine Janeway	Edward J. Benz	Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Deborah Knapp	Timothy L. Ratliff	Purdue University
Richard Koya	Candace S. Johnson	Roswell Park Cancer Institute
Jonathan Levitt, David Wheeler	C. Kent Osborne	Baylor College of Medicine
Arta Monjazeb	Ralph W. de Vere White	University of California, Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center
Peter Shields	Michael A. Caligiuri	Ohio State University
Jill Slansky	Dan Theodorescu	University of Colorado, Denver

Studies of How the Microenvironment of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Affects Immunotherapy

Project PI(s)	Parent Grant PI	Institution
Vinod Balachandran, Ronald DeMatteo, Steven D. Leach, Taha Merghoub, John Moral, Jedd Wolchok	Craig B. Thompson	Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research
John Condeelis	I. David Goldman	Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Howard Crawford, Marina Pasca di Magliano	Theodore S. Lawrence	University of Michigan
David DeNardo	Timothy J. Eberlein	Washington University
Emma Furth, Katherine Nathanson, Anil Rustgi, Ben Stanger, Robert Vonderheide	Chi V. Dang	University of Pennsylvania
Richard Hynes	Tyler Jacks	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Sunil Hingorani	Gary D. Gilliland	Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Michael A. Hollingsworth	Michael A. Hollingsworth	University of Nebraska Medical Center
Kenneth P. Olive	Stephen G. Emerson	Columbia University Health Sciences

Collaborative Research Efforts to Enhance Preclinical Drug Development and Preclinical Clinical Trials Utilizing Patient Derived Xenograft (PDX) Models

Project PI(s)	Parent Grant PI	Institution
Carol Bult	Edison Tak-Bun Liu	Jackson Laboratory
Eva Corey	Peter S. Nelson	Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Bingliang Fang	John D. Minna	University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center
Barbara Foster	Candace S. Johnson	Roswell Park Cancer Institute
Michael Lewis	C. Kent Osborne	Baylor College of Medicine
Funda Meric-Bernstam	Funda Meric-Bernstam	MD Anderson Cancer Center
Ann Richmond	Jennifer A. Pietenpol	Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center
Jann Sarkaria	Robert Diasio	Mayo Clinic Cancer Center
Alana Welm	Mary C. Beckerle	University of Utah
Agnieszka Witkiewicz	Andrew S. Kraft	University of Arizona