About Team Science Grants
The Tina’s Wish Team Science Grant (formerly the Individual Investigator Grant) encourages collaboration in pursuit of an effective screen for the early detection or a prevention strategy for ovarian cancer. The Team Science Grant is $500,000 over two (2) years.
Andrew K. Godwin, PhD & Steven Soper, PhD
Project Title: Liquid Biopsy Using Tumor Specific Extracellular Vesicles for the Early Detection of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer
Dr. Godwin is the Chancellors Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Sciences, Endowed Professor, and Director of Molecular Oncology, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at The University of Kansas Medical Center. In the fall of 2019, Dr. Godwin was named the recipient of the Dolph Simons Award in the Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Soper is a Foundation Distinguished Professor at The University of Kansas and holds joint appointments in the Departments of Chemistry and Mechanical Engineering.
Gottfried Konecny, MD & Jillian Phallen, PhD
Project Title: “Cell-free DNA fragmentomes and protein biomarkers for early detection of ovarian cancer: Discovering biology, creating improved classifiers, and establishing logistics for clinical trial to validate liquid biopsy multi-analyte test for ovarian cancer screening”
Dr. Konecny is a Professor of Oncology and Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the Director of Medical Gynecologic Oncology at UCLA. Dr. Phallen is an Assistant Professor of Oncology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Angela Belcher, PhD, Lan Coffman, MD, PhD & Kripa K. Varanasi, PhD
Project Title: “Investigating Physico-Chemical Properties of Mesenchymal Stromal Cells as Biophysical Markers for Early Detection of Ovarian Cancers"
Dr. Belcher is the James Mason Crafts Professor of Biological Engineering, Materials Science and the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT and the head of the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT. Dr. Coffman is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh with dual appointments in the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology and Division of Gynecologic Oncology. Dr. Varanasi is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT.
Dipanjan Chowdhury, PhD & Kevin Elias,MD
Project Title: “Integrated MicroRNA-Based Early Detection and Risk Stratification for Ovarian Cancer”
Dr. Chowdhury is a Professor of Medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/ Harvard Medical School and the Chief of the Division Of Radiation and Genomic Stability and Co-Director of the Center for BRCA and Related Genes. Dr. Kevin Elias is the Lilli and Seth Harris Endowed Chair for Ovarian Cancer Research at Cleveland Clinic, based in Cleveland, OH, with subspecialties in Critical Care Medicine and Gynecologic Oncology.
Dan A. Landau, MD, PhD; Paul Mischel, MD; Adam Widman, MD; Ronny Drapkin, MD, PhD
Project Title: “Innovative liquid biopsy solutions for ovarian cancer early detection”
Dan A. Landau, MD, PhD (PI) is a Bibliowicz Family Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and Core Member, of the New York Genome Center. Paul Mischel, MD (Co-PI) is a Fortinet Founders Professor; Professor, By Courtesy, at the Department of Neurosurgery and Vice Chair for Research at the Department of Pathology at Stanford University. Adam Widman, MD (Co-PI) is an assistant Member of the Department of Medicine; PI of Widman Lab, Digital Oncology Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Ronny Drapkin, MD, PhD (Collaborator) is a Franklin Payne Endowed Professor, and the Director of Penn Ovarian Cancer Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.
David R. Walt, Ph.D. & Ronny Drapkin, MD, PhD
Project Title: “Leveraging Insights from Fallopian Tube Pre-Cancers to Develop Ultrasensitive Biomarkers for Detection of Ovarian Cancer”
David R. Walt, Ph.D. (PI) is a Professor of Pathology at the Department of Pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Ronny Drapkin, MD, PhD (Co-PI) is a Franklin Payne Endowed Professor, and the Director of Penn Ovarian Cancer Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.
Leyuan Ma, PhD & Ronny Drapkin, MD, PhD
Project Title: “Engineering theranostic T cells for life-long detection and interception of ovarian cancer”
Leyuan Ma, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Ronny Drapkin, MD, PhD (Co-PI) is a Franklin Payne Endowed Professor, and the Director of Penn Ovarian Cancer Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.
Robert Bast, MD & Wenyuan Li, PhD
Project Title: “Early Detection of Ovarian Cancer with Cell-Free DNA Methylome and Protein Blood Biomarkers”
Robert C. Bast, M.D. (PI) is a Professor of Experimental Therapeutics and Harry Carruthers Wiess Distinguished University Chair at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Wenyuan Li, PhD (Co-PI) is an adjunct Professor at the Department of Pathology and Lab Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles.
Kathleen H. Burns, M.D., Ph.D & Thomas R. Pisanic II, PhD
Project Title: “Leveraging Epigenetic Changes in Ovarian Cancer Precursors for Early Detection and Interception”
Kathleen H. Burns, M.D., Ph.D. is the Chair of the Department of Pathology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Tom Pisanic is a Senior Research Scientist at The Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology.
#1
deadliest gynecologic
cancer
80%
of women are diagnosed
at an advanced stage
27%
of women have a 5-year
survival rate after an
advanced stage diagnosis