Cancer seed funding supports 14 new projects by Henry Ford Health & MSU

Kevin M. Guskiewicz President at Michigan State University | Official website

By Capitol News

Dec 13, 2024

Henry Ford Health and Michigan State University Health Sciences have announced the recipients of the 2024 Cancer Seed Funding Program. This initiative, which builds on previous years' cancer research pilot and integration awards, has allocated $700,000 to support 14 new cancer research projects.

Ben Movsas, co-chair of the Henry Ford + MSU Cancer Committee and medical director of Henry Ford Cancer, stated, “We are committed to supporting collaborative research to create a national and international destination for access to the most advanced cancer therapies and interventions.” He highlighted that past awardees have progressed to federally funded research proposals.

Over three years, the program has distributed $2.7 million in funding. Each project pairs a principal investigator from Michigan State University with one from Henry Ford Health. Jeff MacKeigan, co-chair of the committee and senior advisor at MSU's Office of Research and Innovation, emphasized a primary goal: “One of our primary goals is to close the gap in health care outcomes for cancer patients based on race, ethnicity, gender and socioeconomic status.”

More than one-third of this year's awards address health disparities. The selected proposals leverage both institutions' clinical and scientific strengths while laying groundwork for future NCI grant applications.

The focus for this year's program was Future NCI Grant Application. The following researchers received awards:

- Christina Chan (MSU) and Ramandeep Rattan (Henry Ford)

- Sue Catherine Grady (MSU) and Ikenna Okereke (Henry Ford)

- Sachi Horibata (MSU) with Frederick Valeriote (Henry Ford), Jamie Bernard (MSU), and Ramandeep Rattan (Henry Ford)

- Thomas O'Halloran (MSU) and Ling Huang (Henry Ford)

- Xiaoyu Liang (MSU) and Hongsheng Gui (Henry Ford)

- Jeff MacKeigan with Katie Martin (MSU) and Howard Crawford (Henry Ford)

- Kelly Hirko (MSU) and Christine Neslund-Dudas (Henry Ford)

- Olorunseun Ogunwobi (MSU) and Brian Theisen (Henry Ford)

- Jeff MacKeigan (MSU) with Amanda Pilling (Henry Ford)

- Bryan Smith with Sunil Chakrapani (MSU) and Atsushi Yoshida (Henry Ford)

- Horng-Shiuann Wu (MSU) and Menghua Tao (Henry Ford)