2025 Seed Grant Program
The Cancer Center at Illinois (CCIL) is soliciting interdisciplinary team research proposals to initiate new collaborations and enhance existing collaborations among faculty. This seed grant program aims to enable faculty teams to:
- Develop novel cancer-focused research ideas that require the involvement of multiple cancer investigators from different disciplines.
- Formulate a hypothesis-driven or technology-focused research project that relates to one or, ideally, both of the CCIL research programs and their accompanying themes.
- Collect preliminary data or other relevant information to support a feasible approach for grant proposals to an NCI-recognized funding agency.
- Garner external funding for multi-investigator, program project level research projects using CCIL support as a catalyst.
Apply for a CCIL Seed Grant
Eligibility
Research Team
Proposals must reflect substantive involvement of multiple investigators from different scientific disciplines and/or academic departments.
At least two of the team members must be current CCIL members.
Principal Investigator
Each project will identify a lead principal investigator (PI) who assumes organizational leadership for the project. A faculty member may only be PI on one submitted project. However, there is no limit to being a co-investigator on other projects.
Please refer to the full RFP for complete guidelines.
Funding
Each research team may submit proposals for up to $200,000 for up to a 2-year period. Funds will be disbursed as follows:
- up to $100,000 in funding for Year 1
- up to $100,000 in support for Year 2
Previous Seed Funding Program Projects
2024 Seed Grant Projects
Sister-Pore-Repair Dissects DNA Repair Pathways and Hotspot Distribution Among Different Cancers and Treatments
Principal Investigator
- Huanyu Qiao, Associate Professor, Comparative Biosciences
Research Team
- Lin-Feng Chen, Professor, Biochemistry
- Wenan Qiang, Professor, Northwestern Obstetrics and Gynecology
- Kimberly Selting, Professor, Veterinary Clinical Medicine
Multiscale High-Content Cancer Imaging to Identify Molecular Signatures in Drug-Tolerant Cancer Cells
Principal Investigator
- Yang Liu, Professor, Bioengineering
Research Team
- Hongqiang Ma, Research Assistant Professor, Bioengineering
- Chitra Subramanian, Research Associate Professor, Bioengineering
A High Throughput Stiffness Sensor for Testing Efficacy of Chemo and CAR-T Cell Therapy for Pancreatic Cancer
Principal Investigator
- Taher Saif, Professor, Mechanical Sciences & Engineering
Research Team
- Hua Wang, Assistant Professor, Materials Science & Engineering
Imaging Intratumoral Heterogeneity in Breast Cancer Cells Across Epithelial to Mesenchymal Phenotypes by Targeting Submicron Organelle Specific Small-Molecule Chemical Landscape
Principal Investigator
- Ashok Samuel, Specialized Faculty, Bioengineering
Research Team
- Susan Leggett, Assistant Professor, Bioengineering
- Jonathan Sweedler, Professor, Chemistry
Reprogram the Tumor Microenvironment by Targeting Brd4 to Improve Cancer Immunotherapy
Principal Investigator
- Lin-Feng Chen, Professor, Biochemistry
Research Team
- Erik Nelson, Associate Professor, Molecular & Integrative Physiology
- Andrew Smith, Professor, Bioengineering
- Hua Wang, Assistant Professor, Materials Science & Engineering
Targeting Macrophage Trem2 with AAVs using uPAR as Homing Target for Glioblastoma Gene Therapy
Principal Investigator
- Samy Meroueh, Professor, Bioengineering
Research Team
- Timothy Fan, Professor, Veterinary Clinical Medicine
- Thomas Gaj, Assistant Professor, Bioengineering
2023 Seed Grant Projects
Targeting Membrane Phospholipid Remodeling As a Novel Therapy for Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis-Associated Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Principal Investigator
- Bo Wang, Assistant Professor, Comparative Biosciences
Research Team
- David Sarlah, Associate Professor, Chemistry
Identification of Potential Diagnostic and Therapeutic Targets of Iron Metabolism in Head and Neck Cancer
Principal Investigator
- Chitra Subramanian, Research Associate Professor, Carle Illinois College of Medicine
Research Team
- Mark Cohen, Professor, Carle Illinois College of Medicine
- Zeynep Madak-Erdogan, Associate Professor, Food Science & Human Nutrition
Imaging-Based Biomarkers to Predict Glioma Immunotherapy Response
Principal Investigator
- Edward Roy, Associate Professor, Molecular & Integrative Physiology
Research Team
- Wawrzyniec Dobrucki, Associate Professor, Bioengineering
- David Kranz, Professor, Biochemistry
- Fan Lam, Assistant Professor, Bioengineering
- Andrew Smith, Professor, Bioengineering
2022 Seed Grant Projects
A Molecular Lego Kit for Kinase Inhibitors
Principal Investigator
- Martin Burke, Professor, Chemistry
Research Team
- Emad Tajkhorshid, Professor, Biochemistry
Targeting the Bidirectional Crosstalk Between Gut Microbial Metabolism and Bile Acids to Alleviate Intestinal and Liver Tumorigenesis
Principal Investigator
- Christopher Gaulke, Assistant Professor, Pathobiology
Research Team
- Sayeepriyadarshini Anakk, Associate Professor, Molecular & Integrative Physiology
- Collin Kieffer, Assistant Professor, Microbiology
- Bo Wang, Assistant Professor, Comparative Biosciences
Engineering Mechanical and Chemical Gradients to Control Cancer Cell Metastasis
Principal Investigator
- Catherine Murphy, Professor, Chemistry
Research Team
- Taher Saif, Professor, Mechanical Sciences and Engineering
Versatile Redox Detection of a-Glycosylated Proteins in Blood, a Potential Universal Biomarker for Robust Cancer Detection
Principal Investigator
- Joaquin Rodriguez Lopez, Associate Professor, Chemistry
Research Team
- Brian Cunningham, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Zeynep Madak-Erdogan, Associate Professor, Food Science and Human Nutrition
Molecular Dynamics Modeling of Target Recycling Amplification for Ultrasensitive Detection of RNA-based Cancer Biomarkers
Principal Investigator
- Emad Tajkhorshid, Professor, Biochemistry
Research Team
- Brian Cunningham, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Optogenetic Modulation of the Tumor Microenvironment to Improve Cancer Immunotherapy
Principal Investigator
- Kai Zhang, Associate Professor, Biochemistry
Research Team
- Erik Nelson, Molecular and Integrative Physiology
2021 Seed Grant Projects
Delineating the Role of Orc6 in Genome Surveillance and Cancer Progression
Principal Investigator
- Supriya Prasanth, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology
Research Team
- Satish K. Nair, Department of Biochemistry
FORce Control of Cancer Tumor μEnvironment (FORCE)
Principal Investigator
- M. Taher Saif, Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering
Research Team
- Kimberly Selting, Department of Veterinary Clinical Medicine
- Kannanganattu V. Prasanth, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology
- Hyunjoon Kong, Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
High-Resolution Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging for Adaptive Glioblastoma Multiforme Patient Treatment
Principal Investigator
- Hua Li, Department of Bioengineering
Research Team
- Fan Lam, Department of Bioengineering
- Zhi-Pei Liang, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Mark Anastasio, Department of Bioengineering
- Paul Arnold, Department of Neurosurgery (Carle Foundation Hospital)
- Daniel Barnett, Carle Cancer Institute
Lipid Droplet Packing: A New Target to Interfere with the Progress of Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Principal Investigator
- Cecilia Leal, Department of Materials Science & Engineering
Research Team
- Sayee Anakk, Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology
Multi-shape 3D Hanging Drop Array for Cancer Drug-screening
Principal Investigator
- Rashid Bashir, Department of Bioengineering
Research Team
- Panagiotis Z. Anastasiadis, Department of Cancer Biology (Mayo Clinic – Jacksonville, FL)
- George Vasmatzis, Department of Molecular Medicine (Mayo Clinic – Rochester, MN)
- Andrew Smith, Department of Bioengineering
- Joon Kong, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Jie Chen, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology
Quantitative Ultrasound for Detection of Lymph Node Metastasis from Oral Melanoma & to Document Tumor Response to Stereotactic Radiosurgery in Dogs as a Large Animal Model of Metastatic Cancer
Principal Investigator
- Kimberly Selting, Department of Veterinary Clinical Medicine
Research Team
- Audrey Billhymer, Department of Veterinary Clinical Medicine
- Michael Oelze, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Rita Miller, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Stable Therapeutic Antibody Expression for Cancer Immunotherapy by Liver-directed Gene Editing
Principal Investigator
- Shannon Sirk, Department of Bioengineering
Research Team
- Thomas Gaj, Department of Bioengineering
- Zeynep Madak-Erdogan, Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition
- Pablo Perez-Pinera, Department of Bioengineering
Workflows and Tools for Visualizing Tumor Phylogenies in Metastatic Breast Cancer
Principal Investigator
- Mohammed El-Kebir, Department of Computer Science
Research Team
- Zeynep Madak-Erdogan, Department of Food Science & Human Nutrition
- Charles Blatti, National Center for Supercomputing Applications
- Colleen Bushell, National Center for Supercomputing Applications
- Lisa Gatzke, National Center for Supercomputing Applications
- Matthew Berry, National Center for Supercomputing Applications
The Role of the Urinary Sterolbiome in Prostate Cancer Risk
Principal Investigator
- Jason Ridlon, Department of Animal Sciences
Research Team
- H. Rex Gaskins, Department of Animal Sciences
- Joseph Irudayaraj, Department of Bioengineering
- John Erdman, Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition
2020 Seed Grant Projects
Using Anticancer Drug-Induced Immune Cell Activation to Target Ovarian Cancer for Eradication
Principal Investigator
- David Shapiro, Professor, Biochemistry
Research Team
- Erik Nelson, Assistant Professor, Molecular and Integrative Physiology
- Georgina Cheng, Clinical Assistant Professor, Carle Illinois College of Medicine
Elucidating the Role of Minor Cannabinoids on Immune Cell Activation Involved in Lung Cancer Metastatic Progression
Principal Investigator
- David Sarlah, Assistant Professor, Chemistry
Research Team
- Aditi Das, Associate Professor, Comparative Biosciences
- Timothy Fan, Professor, Veterinary Clinical Medicine
Establishment of a Spatially Resolved Noncoding RNA-mRNA Interactome Map for Breast Cancer Progression
Principal Investigator
- Hee-Sun Han, Assistant Professor, Chemistry
Research Team
- Saurabh Sinha, Professor, Computer Science
- Prasanth Kumar V. Kannanganattu, Associate Professor, Cell and Developmental Biology