Developmental Research Program
Directors:
James C Yao, M.D.
Randy L Johnson, Ph.D.
The purpose of the Developmental Research Program (DRP) is to fund promising projects by investigators whose current work may not focus exclusively on HCC, but who propose highly innovative translational studies of HCC that could become full SPORE projects or compete successfully for funding outside of the SPORE. The DRP provides a unique venue for making available significant financial support, and for demonstrating active institutional support, through a program that is rapidly responsive to new ideas or initiatives. Moreover, this program is rooted in a spirit of collaboration espoused by the SPORE investigators, who have an extensive track-record of bringing investigators from other disciplines into HCC research. The strength of the Developmental Research Program rests in its ability to make available financial support needed to access all the critical expertise and resources within the entire SPORE. This allows us to develop collaborative, multi-investigator, multi-institutional research projects with the support of innovative, investigator-initiated projects that have the potential to flourish into reliable and productive translational research projects that make a path from basic and/or population research projects into research focused on human clinical specimens/patient populations.
Awardees
2023–2024
Raghu Kalluri, M.D., Ph.D.
Cancer Biology, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Preclinical assessment of a novel exosome-based precision RNA therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma
2022–2023
Li Ma, Ph.D.
Experimental Radiation Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Targeting an iron-sequestering pathway to improve liver cancer immunotherapy
Steven Hsesheng Lin, M.D., Ph.D.
Radiation Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Pilot Study for Detecting Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis associated Hepatocellular Carcinoma using Integrated Biochip Imaging of Tumor Exosomes (iCITE)
Harrys A. Torres, M.D.
Infectious Diseases, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Enzyme-based Nutrient Depletion with L-asparaginase for the Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma (END HCC)
2021–2022
Mark T. Bedford, Ph.D.
Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Evaluating the PRMT5/SND1 axis as a potential therapeutic target for Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Subrata Sen, Ph.D.
Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Single Cell RNA Sequencing Analyses of Tumor Microenvironment Reprogramming in Pten Knockout Mouse Model of HCC: Clinical Translational Implications
H. Charles Manning, Ph.D., Lesley Flynt, M.D., and Armeen Mahvash, M.D.
Departments of Cancer Systems Imaging, Nuclear Medicine and Interventional Radiology, respectively, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Novel PET Imaging to Guide Yttrium-90 Radioembolization Therapy in Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Philip L. Lorenzi, Ph.D.
Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Enzyme-based Nutrient Depletion with L-asparaginase for the Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma (END HCC)
2020–2021
Ju-Seog Lee, Ph.D.
Systems Biology, MD Anderson Cancer Center
β-Catenin-Mediated Ferroptosis Resistance in Liver Cancer
Millward, Ph.D.
Cancer Systems Imaging, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Evaluating the Predictive Power of Novel PET Imaging Agents in the Transition from NAFLD through NASH to HCC
2019–2020
Eugene J. Koay, M.D., Ph.D. and David T. Fuentes, Ph.D.
Imaging Physics–Research, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Quantitative imaging for risk stratification and early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma
Aliya Qayyum, M.D.
Abdominal Imaging, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Molecular and Imaging Biomarkers of Immune Checkpoint Blockade (ICB) in Advanced HCC