2024 MRA Awards

A searchable database of all MRA grants is available: CureMelanoma.org/research/grants

Young Investigator Awardees

The MRA Young Investigator Awards empower the next generation of early career researchers. In addition to funding bold new ideas, MRA’s Young Investigator Award program is also a training ground for researchers through the interaction with a senior melanoma investigator serving as a mentor as they prepare for the future of their science careers.

Identifying and targeting immunotherapy tolerance mechanisms in melanoma

The Danny Fund — MRA Young Investigator Award‍

Claudia Capparelli, PhD, Thomas Jefferson University

Harnessing nutrition to enhance melanoma-specific T cells

Anna-Maria & Stephen Kellen Foundation — MRA Young Investigator Award

Nicholas Collins, PhD, Weill Medical College of Cornell University

Targeting VISTA on neutrophils to manage immunotherapy adverse events

Leveraged Finance Fights Melanoma (LFFM) — MRA Young Investigator Award

Daniel Hirschhorn, PhD, Weill Medical College of Cornell University

Modeling primary GNAQ/BAP1-driven uveal melanoma in zebrafish

The Black Family — MRA Young Investigator Award

Colin Kenny, PhD, The University of Iowa

Rewiring exhausted T cell-derived chemokines to improve anti-tumor immunity

MRA Young Investigator Award in Memory of Chad Johnson

Kelly Kersten, PhD, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute

Epigenetic regulation of IL-7 to enhance cell therapies for melanoma

MRA Young Investigator Award

Goran Micevic, MD, PhD, Yale University

New specific therapeutic approaches to target NF1-null melanoma

The Black Family — MRA Young Investigator Award

Sandra Misale, PhD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Deciphering T cell determinants of resistance to neoadjuvant immunotherapy

MRA Young Investigator Award in Memory of Jeff Weber

Giacomo Oliveira, PhD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Neoadjuvant research platform to personalize therapy for melanoma patients

MIA — MRA Young Investigator Award

Ines Silva, MD, PhD, Melanoma Institute Australia

Innovative metalloimmunotherapy for advanced melanoma and metastasis

Leveraged Finance Fights Melanoma (LFFM) Michael Milken — MRA Young Investigator Award

Kevin Sun, PhD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Nanoparticle reprogramming of antigen presentation for acral melanoma

The Black Family — MRA Young Investigator Award

Joel Sunshine, MD, PhD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Pilot Awardees

The MRA Pilot Awards provide early support for conceptually novel, exploratory, high risk and high impact projects with the potential to change the face of melanoma research and treatments.

Upregulating phospho-ERK as a new therapeutic approach

Leveraged Finance Fights Melanoma (LFFM) — MRA Pilot Award

Drew Adams, PhD, Case Western Reserve University - School of Medicine

Characterizing dormant uveal melanoma cells from clinical biopsies

The Black Family — MRA Pilot Award

Rizwan Haq, MD, PhD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Development of a drug repurposing pipeline for rare melanoma

Derrick Queen — MRA Pilot Award

John Lamar, PhD, Albany Medical College

Point-of-care high-frequency quantitative ultrasound assessment of melanoma

L’Oreal Dermatological Beauty Division — MRA Pilot Award

Jonathan Mamou, PhD, Weill Medical College of Cornell University

Galectin-targeted immunotherapy: transforming melanoma treatment

MRA Pilot Award

Laia Querol Cano, PhD, Radboud University Medical Center

Enabling precision drug delivery by targeting cancer metabolism

The Teicher Family Grant in Memory of Phillip Teicher — MRA Pilot Award

Xiaoyang Wu, PhD, The University of Chicago

Established Investigator Awards

MRA Established Investigator Awards support senior investigators with an established record of scientific productivity and accomplishment and who are past the initial five years of their first academic faculty appointment.

Epigenetic control of melanoma inflammatory CAFs

Merryl and James Tisch in honor of Debra Black — MRA Established Investigator Award

Emily Bernstein, PhD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Interrupting melanoma leptomeningeal metastasis

Leveraged Finance Fights Melanoma (LFFM) — MRA Established Investigator Award

Adrienne Boire, MD, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Clinical utility of mitochondrial genetics in ICI efficacy prediction

MRA Established Investigator Award

Tomas Kirchhoff, PhD, New York University Grossman School of Medicine

Targeting SIRT5 in uveal melanoma

The Black Family — MRA Established Investigator Award

David Lombard, MD, PhD, Miller School of Medicine of the University of Miami

Epigenetic editing to improve melanoma TIL therapy

Leveraged Finance Fights Melanoma (LFFM) — MRA Established Investigator Award

Kunal Rai, PhD, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

mIF biomarker assay to predict response to anti-PD-1 mono vs. combo therapy

MRA Established Investigator Award

Janis Taube, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

The aging brain microenvironment promotes brain metastases

Brandon Barniea — MRA Established Investigator Award

Ashani Weeraratna, PhD, Johns Hopkins University JHURA

The axes of acral melanoma - anatomic position and driver oncogenes

Leveraged Finance Fights Melanoma (LFFM) London — MRA Established Investigator Award

Richard White, MD, PhD, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Oxford

Treating melanoma brain metastasis using bispecific CAR Gamma Delta T cells

MRA Established Investigator Award

Xiaowei Xu, MD, PhD, University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine

Targeting myeloid cells of the tumor microenvironment

MRA Established Investigator Award

Jennifer Yunyan Zhang, PhD, Duke University School of Medicine

Established Investigator — Academic Industry Partnership Awards

MRA partners with Industry to seek and fund proposals in scientific areas of interest that align with both MRA and industry priorities. Partnerships can be established across MRA’s grant award mechanisms.

PREMIER project in melanoma

MRA Established Investigator — Academic Industry Partnership Award in honor of Norm and Sunny Brownstein — Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck

Sapna Patel, MD, University of Colorado Denver, AMC and DC

Special Opportunity Team Science Awards

The MRA Team Science Awards utilize a multidisciplinary team science approach to foster collaborative research projects with the potential of rapid advancement to the clinic. This award also requires the inclusion of a Young Investigator to participate on the research team and interact with a melanoma mentor.

Early spread and immune responses in pediatric Spitz tumors

St. Baldrick’s Foundation — MRA Team Science Award

Boris Bastian, MD, PhD, The Regents of the University of California, San Francisco

Stress-induced immune dysregulation as a driver of immunotherapy resistance

Amanda and Jonathan Eilian — MRA Team Science Award

Christian Blank, MD, PhD, Stichting Het Nederlands Kanker Instituut Antoni van Leeuwenhoek ziekenhuis (The Netherlands Cancer Institute — NKI)