Curebound Awards $8.5 Million for 23 Cancer Research Studies, Including $1 Million Cure Prize

Philanthropic organization has awarded $51.5 million in cancer research grants to date with one vision: cures in our lifetime.

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Curebound, a philanthropic organization that fundraises for and invests in innovative cancer research, today announced it has awarded 23 new grants totaling $8.5 million, including a $1 million Cure Prize, to advance promising cancer research programs.

Curebound’s Scientific Advisory Board, together with more than 100 scientific peer reviewers across the nation, evaluated hundreds of applications for Curebound grant programs – Catalyst, Discovery, Equity, Targeted Grants and Cure Prize – across key research pillars, including:

• Cancer Risk Detection
• Novel Approaches + Therapeutics
• Personalized Immunotherapy
• Cancer Community Equities
• Childhood Cancers

“Curebound identified these recipients based on their scientific strengths and ability to translate research breakthroughs into life-saving treatments quickly. We are grateful to the scientists nationwide who volunteered to evaluate hundreds of grant applications to select these 23 exciting cancer studies,” said Curebound Chief Science Advisor Ezra Cohen, MD, FRCPSC, FASCO.

2025 Curebound $1 Million Cure Prize

The Curebound Cure Prize is awarded for groundbreaking, collaborative and translational cancer research with near-term clinical application.

• Ludmil Alexandrov, PhD, UC San Diego; Diane Simeone, MD, UC San Diego; Adam Yala, PhD, UC Berkely; Karandeep Singh, MD, UC San Diego – Multi-modal artificial intelligence framework for early detection of pancreatic cancer

2025 Targeted Grant Recipients

Curebound Targeted Grants provide $500,000 each to research projects that are closer to clinical stages. Interdisciplinary collaboration is required to qualify and to ensure each project is geared toward translational application.

• David Cheresh, PhD, UC San Diego; Andrew Lowy, MD, UC San Diego – A human bispecific antibody to target pancreatic cancer stroma
• Steven Olson, Sanford Burnham Prebys; Dan Theodorescu, MD, PhD, University of Arizona – Discovery of NPEPPS inhibitors for the treatment of muscle-invasive bladder cancer
• Ronald Evans, PhD, The Salk Institute; Herve Tiriac, PhD, UC San Diego; Jonathan Weitz, PhD, UC San Diego; Scott Kopetz, MD, PhD, University of Texas MD Anderson – Intercepting colorectal cancer growth and therapeutic resistance through inhibition of protein fatty acid diacylation
• Rebecca Rakow-Penner, MD, PhD, UC San Diego; Christopher Millan, PhD, Beken Bio; Jingjing Zou, PhD, UC San Diego; Michael McHale, MD, UC San Diego – Ovarian cancer comprehensive screening and risk assessment with extracellular vesicle circulating blood tumor marker and MRI
• Fleur Ferguson, PhD, UC San Diego; Andrew Lowy, MD, UC San Diego; Anne Bang, PhD, Sanford Burnham Prebys; Eric Wang, PhD, Sanford Burnham Prebys; Jeremiah Momper, PhD, UC San Diego; Uri Manor, PhD, UC San Diego – Overcoming K-ras inhibitor resistance in PDAC
• Andrew Lowy, MD, UC San Diego; Yuan Chen, PhD, UC San Diego – SUMO Inhibition and Irinotecan: A Novel Synergistic Combination for Pancreatic Cancer Therapy
• Sumit K. Chanda, PhD, Scripps Research; Nikunj Shukla, UC San Diego; Sunnie Yoh, PhD, Scripps Research – Targeted immunopotentiation of neoantigen vaccines using innate immune agonists
• Charles Spruck, PhD, Sanford Burnham Prebys; Angela Liou, MD, Sanford Burnham Prebys; Eduard Sergienko, Sanford Burnham Prebys; Jon Covel, PhD, Sanford Burnham Prebys – Therapeutic targeting of immunomodulator FBXO44 in cancer

2025 Discovery Grant Recipients

Curebound Discovery Grants are one-time seed grants of $250,000 for early-phase studies that require interinstitutional collaboration and have the potential to open new frontiers in cancer science.

• Kelly Kersten, PhD, Sanford Burnham Prebys; Christina Towers, PhD, The Salk Institute – Elucidating how tumor mitochondrial transfer affects macrophage function in cancer
• Mitchell Kronenberg, PhD, La Jolla Institute for Immunology; Anusha Ganesan, MD, PhD, Rady Children’s Hospital; Hilde Cheroutre, PhD, La Jolla Institute for Immunology; Kyu Hye Chun, PhD, UC San Diego and La Jolla Institute for Immunology; Nicolas Thiault, PhD, La Jolla Institute for Immunology – Enlisting cytotoxic CD4+ T cells to fight childhood cancers
• Maximiliano A. D’Angelo, PhD, Sanford Burnham Prebys; Hatim Husain, MD, UC San Diego; Susanne Heyen-Genel, PhD, Sanford Burnham Prebys – Modulating Nup37 for novel cancer therapies
• Ronald Evans, PhD, The Salk Institute, Dannielle Engle, PhD, The Salk Institute; Herve Tiriac, PhD, UC San Diego – Overcoming stromal barriers to KRAS inhibition in pancreatic cancer with VDR agonist therapy
• Tony Hunter, PhD, The Salk Institute; Herve Tiriac, PhD, UC San Diego; Jonathan Weitz, PhD, UC San Diego; Yuan Sui, PhD, The Salk Institute – Perturbing the OSM-OSMR signaling axis in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA)
• Xueqin Sun, PhD, Sanford Burnham Prebys; Eduard Sergienko, PhD, Sanford Burnham Prebys; Frank Furnari, PhD, UC San Diego – Targeting a novel epigenetic vulnerability in glioblastoma
• Frank Furnari, PhD, UC San Diego; Raghavendra Vadla, PhD, UC San Diego; Susan Kaech, PhD, The Salk Institute – Targeting BRD2 to block therapy-induced reprogramming and immune evasion in glioblastoma
• Lukas Chavez, PhD, Sanford Burnham Prebys; Megan Paul, MD, Rady Children’s Hospital; Susanne Heyen-Genel, PhD, Sanford Burnham Prebys – Targeting ecDNA in high-risk medulloblastoma: A high-throughput assay to discover novel therapeutic probes
• Andrew Lowy, MD, UC San Diego; Herve Tiriac, PhD, UC San Diego; Ian Pass, PhD, Sanford Burnham Prebys – Targeting MICAL2 for pancreatic cancer therapy
• Robert Signer, PhD, UC San Diego; Helena Yu, MD, UC San Diego – The role of proteostasis pathways in pediatric leukemia

2025 Catalyst Grant Recipient

Curebound Catalyst Grants provide $250,000 of non-dilutive funding for early-stage companies to conduct research that addresses critical challenges in cancer prevention, detection or treatment and demonstrates opportunity to advance swiftly to the clinic.

• Michael Kelner, MD, Illudent, Inc.; Sean Uryu, Illudent; Venkata Kotaraju, Illudent – Illudent Therapeutics: Precision small-molecule targeting cancers deficient in nucleotide-excision repair

2025 Equity Grant Recipients

Curebound Equity Grants of $250,000 fund a broad range of research focused on advancing cancer care in medically underrepresented and underserved communities, with the goal of improving access, outcomes and equity.

• Brent Rose, MD, UC San Diego; Corinne McDaniels-Davidson, PhD, San Diego State; Edmund Qiao, MD, UC San Diego; Matthew Banegas, PhD; UC San Diego; Michelle Johnson, MD; UC San Diego – Addressing cancer disparities through pre-diagnostic care: A SEER-Medicare analysis of prostate, breast, and colorectal cancer
• Joshua Demb, PhD, UC San Diego; Linda Lara-Jacobo, PhD, San Diego State; Nicolas Lopez-Galvez, PhD, San Diego State – Promotora-led cancer prevention in the fields: Linking environmental pollutants and GI cancer risk in Imperial Valley
• Sharon Choi, MD, PhD, UC San Diego; Humberto Prada, PhD, San Diego State; Noe Crespo, PhD, San Diego State; Rana McKay, MD, UC San Diego – Structured exercise and nutritional guidance in Hispanic/Latino men with prostate cancer: A pilot study of SALUD-PC

“This $8.5 million in funding will support diverse, innovative and highly promising cancer research efforts,” said Curebound CEO Anne Marbarger. “None of this would be possible without our committed donors and the incredible scientific advisors who volunteer their time to rigorously review and select the studies Curebound funds. We’re proud to support these talented scientists and research teams and look forward to the progress their work will bring for people living with cancer.”

To see the completed list of 2025 Curebound research grant recipients click here. To learn more about donating, visit www.curebound.org/get-involved. To apply for Curebound funding, visit www.curebound.org/what-we-do.

About Curebound

Curebound fundraises for and invests in cancer research with the power to save lives. Through collaborative grants, corporate partnerships, and strategic investments, Curebound accelerates better prevention, detection, and treatments for cancer. Headquartered in the major U.S. biotech hub of San Diego, amid 3,000+ life sciences companies, leading health systems, and world-class research institutions, Curebound partners with these organizations to forge interdisciplinary collaboration, foster knowledge sharing, and fund pioneering cancer research. So far, Curebound has funded $51.5 million in cancer research, awarding 170 study grants for 23 types of pediatric and adult cancers. This work has resulted in 30 expanded clinical trials reaching 1,864 patients and has spurred $161 million in follow-on funding for Curebound-supported investigators. Cancer is relentless – so is Curebound. Join us at www.curebound.org.