SCI Innovation Award

A $50,000 SCI Women's Cancer Center Innovation Award was awarded to Paul Blumenthal, MD, MPH, professor of obstetrics and gynecology, and his co-investigators Emily McClung, MD, clinical assistant professor of obstetrics & gynecology, and Michelle Khan, MD, MPH, clinical associate professor of obstetrics & gynecology, for their proposal entitled “Innovating for treatment of cervical pre-cancer: Novel use and application of trichoroacetic acid (TCA) to treat cervical dysplasia with an ultimate focus on low-resource settings.”

A $50,000 SCI Women's Cancer Center Innovation Award was awarded to Paul Blumenthal, MD, MPH, professor of obstetrics and gynecology, and his co-investigators Emily McClung, MD, clinical assistant professor of obstetrics & gynecology, and Michelle Khan, MD, MPH, clinical associate professor of obstetrics & gynecology, for their proposal entitled “Innovating for treatment of cervical pre-cancer: Novel use and application of trichoroacetic acid (TCA) to treat cervical dysplasia with an ultimate focus on low-resource settings.”

A $50,000 SCI Innovation Award was awarded to Lipika Goyal, MD, associate professor of medicine (oncology), Edgar Engleman, MD, professor of pathology and of medicine (immunology and rheumatology), Daniel Delitto, MD, PhD, assistant professor of surgery (general surgery), and Gregory Charville, PhD, assistant professor of pathology, for their proposal titled “Elucidating mechanisms of lymph node metastatic tolerance in high-risk resectable cholangiocarcinoma.”

A $50,000 SCI Women's Cancer Center Innovation Award was awarded to Fauzia Riaz, MD, clinical assistant professor of medicine (oncology), and Candice Thompson, MD, clinical assistant professor of surgery, and their collaborator Melinda Telli, MD, associate professor of medicine (oncology), for their proposal “Circulating tumor-DNA detection in early stage triple negative and HER2-positive breast cancer.”

A $50,000 SCI Innovation Award was awarded to Dawn Siegel, MD, clinical professor of dermatology, and Albert Chiou, MD, MBA, clinical associate professor of dermatology, for their proposal titled “Co-design of an educational intervention for melanoma prevention and awareness for teens.”

Alice Ting, PhD, professor of genetics, of biology, was awarded a $50,000 SCI Innovation Award for her proposal “A synthetic GPCR platform for cell-based cancer therapy.”

A $50,000 SCI Pancreatic Cancer Innovation Award was awarded to Katherine Ferrara, PhD, professor of radiology, for her proposal “Claudin-4-targeted imaging and readiothergnostics to treat pancreatic cancer.”

Sarah Heilshorn, PhD, director of the Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials (GLAM), professor of materials science and engineering, Calvin Kuo, MD, PhD, Maureen Lyles D'Ambrogio Professor, and Christina Curtis, PhD, professor of medicine (oncology) and of genetics, were awarded a $50,000 SCI Pancreatic Cancer Innovation Award for their proposal “Engineering of personalized medicine organoids for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.”

Ami Bhatt, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine (hematology) and of genetics, and her co-investigator, Allison Kurian, MD, MSc, associate professor of medicine (oncology) and of health research and policy, were awarded a $50,000 SCI Women's Cancer Center Innovation Award. Their proposal is titled “The microbiome as a modulator of immunotherapy treatment response in triple negative breast cancer.”

A $50,000 SCI Women's Cancer Center Innovation Award was awarded to Paul Blumenthal, MD, MPH, professor of obstetrics and gynecology, and his co-investigators Emily McClung, MD, clinical assistant professor of obstetrics & gynecology, and Michelle Khan, MD, MPH, clinical associate professor of obstetrics & gynecology, for their proposal entitled “Innovating for treatment of cervical pre-cancer: Novel use and application of trichoroacetic acid (TCA) to treat cervical dysplasia with an ultimate focus on low-resource settings.”

Livnat Jerby, PhD, Assistant Professor of Genetics, was awarded a $50,000 SCI Women's Cancer Center Innovation Award for her proposal “Reprogramming lymphocyte migration to overcome immune exclusion in breast cancer – towards cell therapies with spatial specificity.”

Derick Okwan, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pathology, and his co-investigator Edgar Engleman, MD, professor of pathology and of medicine (immunology and rheumatology), were awarded a $50,000 SCI Women's Cancer Center Innovation Award for their proposal “Treatment of breast cancer through reversal of bacteria-induced neutrophil-mediated immunosuppression.”

A $50,000 SCI Women's Cancer Center Innovation Award was awarded to Fauzia Riaz, MD, clinical assistant professor of medicine (oncology), and Candice Thompson, MD, clinical assistant professor of surgery, and their collaborator Melinda Telli, MD, associate professor of medicine (oncology), for their proposal “Circulating tumor-DNA detection in early stage triple negative and HER2-positive breast cancer.”

Lei Xing, PhD, Jacob Haimson and Sarah S. Donaldson Professor, James Zou, PhD, assistant professor of biomedical data science, and Max Diehn, MD, PhD, professor of radiation oncology, were awarded a $50,000 SCI Women's Cancer Center Innovation Award for their proposal “Biology-aware deep learning for prediction of outcome of cancer immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors.”

A $50,000 SCI Women's Cancer Center Innovation Award was awarded to James Zou, PhD, assistant professor of biomedical data science for his proposal titled “Systematic pan-cancer analysis of sex dimorphism in response to treatments using large real-world clinicogenomics data.”

Carolyn Bertozzi, PhD, Baker Family Director of Stanford ChEM-H, Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, was awarded a $50,000 Shmunis Family Innovation Award in Cancer Therapeutics for her project entitled “From inhibition to activation: A novel siglec-based strategy for cancer immunotherapy.”

Kacper Rogala, PhD, assistant professor of structural biology and of chemical and systems biology, was awarded a $50,000 Shmunis Family Innovation Award in Cancer Therapeutics for his proposal titled “Targeting hyperactive mTORC2 in lung cancer.”

Anusha Kalbasi, MD, associate professor of radiation oncology, was awarded a $50,000 Behar Innovation Award in Sarcoma Research for his proposal titled “Immunotherapeutic targeting of fusion oncogenes in sarcoma.”

A $50,000 SCI Cancer Innovation award was awarded to Wu Liu, PhD, Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology; Billy W. Loo Jr., MD, PhD, Professor of Radiation Oncology; and Harmeet Bedi, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, for their project entitled “Cone beam CT-guided, electromagnetic bronchoscopy-aided delivery of high dose rate brachytherapy for peripheral lung mass ablation.”

Lisa Goldman Rosas, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health and of Medicine, was awarded a $50,000 SCI Innovation award for her project entitled “Promoting nutrition security among colorectal cancer survivors.” Dr. Goldman Rosas’ research focuses on addressing disparities in chronic diseases and cancer among racial/ethnic minority families.

A $50,000 SCI Innovation award was awarded to Tian Yi Zhang, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, and her collaborator David Kurtz, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine (Oncology), for their project entitled “Inventing a noninvasive way to detect measurable residual disease (MRD) in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) using circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA).”

A $50,000 Stanford Women's Cancer Center Innovation award was awarded to Danny Chou, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and, by courtesy, of Chemical and Systems Biology, and his collaborator Everett Meyer, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine, for their project entitled “Inserting a switch into IL-2 to develop PD-1-dependent immunotherapy.”

A $50,000 Stanford Women's Cancer Center Innovation award was awarded to Alia Crum, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology and, by courtesy, of Medicine; Lidia Schapira, MD, Professor of Medicine (Oncology); Michael Snyder, PhD, Stanford W. Ascherman Professor of Genetics; and David Spiegel, MD, PhD, Jack, Lulu, and Sam Willson Professor of Medicine, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, for their project entitled “Can changing cancer mindsets improve biomarkers of immune functioning? Piloting the effects of a novel digital intervention on direct-to-patient blood sampling and multiomics profiling.”

A $50,000 Stanford Women's Cancer Center Innovation award was awarded to Kay Daniels, MD, Clinical Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Paul Blumenthal, MD, MPH, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, for their project entitled “Feasibility of community based same day cervical cancer screening for refuge women in Tijuana, Mexico.”

Oliver Dorigo, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Oncology), was awarded a $50,000 Stanford Women's Cancer Center Innovation award for his project entitled “Novel strategies to improve ovarian cancer sensitivity to immunotherapy.”

A $50,000 Stanford Women's Cancer Center Innovation award was awarded to Esther John, PhD, MSPH, Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health and of Medicine, and her collaborators, Allison Kurian, MD, Professor of Medicine (Oncology) and of Epidemiology and Population Health, and Holden Maecker, PhD, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, for their project entitled “Disparities in second primary breast cancer and inflammatory biomarkers.”

A $50,000 Stanford Women's Cancer Center Innovation award was awarded to Erqi Pollom, MD, Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology and, by courtesy, of Neurosurgery, and her collaborators Manali Patel, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine (Oncology), and Kekoa Taparra, MD, PhD, resident physician-scientist trainee in the Department of Radiation Oncology, for their project entitled “The impact of multiraciality, comorbidity, and geography on cancer disparities among the Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Population in the United States.”

A $50,000 Stanford Women's Cancer Center Innovation award was awarded to Irene Wapnir, MD, Professor of Surgery, and her collaborator Dung Nguyen, MD, Pharm. D, Clinical Professor of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, for their project entitled “Volume and symmetry outcomes in unilateral omentum-based breast reconstruction.”

Steven Corsello, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine (Oncology), was awarded a $50,000 Shmunis Family Innovation Awards in Cancer Therapeutics award for his project entitled “Harnessing an E3 ligase for pancreatic cancer therapy.”

Jonathan Pollack, MD, PhD, Professor of Pathology, was awarded a $50,000 Behar Innovation Awards in Sarcoma Research award for his project entitled “Identifying novel therapeutic targets in liposarcoma.”