Philanthropic organization has awarded $51.5 million in cancer research grants to date with one vision: cures in our lifetime.
Curebound, a philanthropic organization dedicated to funding and advancing innovative cancer research, announced from San Diego that it has awarded 23 new research grants totaling $8.5 million, including a prestigious $1 million Cure Prize. According to Ezra Cohen, MD, FRCPSC, FASCO, Curebound’s Chief Science Advisor, the organization selected the recipients based on their scientific strengths and their demonstrated ability to translate research breakthroughs into life-saving treatments rapidly. He expressed gratitude to the more than 100 scientific peer reviewers nationwide who helped evaluate hundreds of applications submitted across Curebound’s five grant programs—Catalyst, Discovery, Equity, Targeted Grants, and the Cure Prize—representing key research pillars such as cancer risk detection, novel therapeutics, personalized immunotherapy, cancer community equity initiatives, and childhood cancer research.
The 2025 Cure Prize, valued at $1 million, recognizes groundbreaking collaborative research with clear potential for near-term clinical application. This year’s prize was awarded to a team comprising Ludmil Alexandrov, PhD, at UC San Diego; Diane Simeone, MD, also at UC San Diego; Adam Yala, PhD, at UC Berkeley; and Karandeep Singh, MD, at UC San Diego. Their award-winning project focuses on developing a multi-modal artificial intelligence framework designed for the early detection of pancreatic cancer, a disease known for its high lethality and limited early-screening options.
Curebound also awarded its 2025 Targeted Grants, valued at $500,000 each, to several interdisciplinary research initiatives nearing clinical translation. Among the recipients were UC San Diego researchers David Cheresh, PhD, and Andrew Lowy, MD, for their work on a human bispecific antibody aimed at targeting pancreatic cancer stroma. Additional awardees included Steven Olson of Sanford Burnham Prebys and Dan Theodorescu, MD, PhD, from the University of Arizona, who are pursuing the discovery of NPEPPS inhibitors for treating muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Another team led by Ronald Evans, PhD, of The Salk Institute, in collaboration with researchers from UC San Diego and MD Anderson Cancer Center, received funding to investigate how inhibiting protein fatty acid diacylation could intercept colorectal cancer growth and therapeutic resistance. Ovarian cancer screening and risk assessment research also received support through the project led by UC San Diego’s Rebecca Rakow-Penner, MD, PhD, and collaborators developing a multimodal diagnostic approach that integrates MRI with extracellular vesicle blood biomarkers. Other Targeted Grants supported studies focused on overcoming K-ras inhibitor resistance in pancreatic cancer, exploring SUMO inhibition combined with irinotecan as a novel therapeutic strategy, enhancing neoantigen vaccine efficacy using innate immune agonists, and targeting the immunomodulator FBXO44 for cancer treatment.
The 2025 Discovery Grants, each providing $250,000 in one-time seed funding, were awarded to early-phase studies involving interinstitutional collaboration and high potential for scientific breakthroughs. These grants supported investigations such as understanding how tumor mitochondrial transfer influences macrophage behavior in cancer, led by Kelly Kersten, PhD, and Christina Towers, PhD. Another funded study, conducted by a team from the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, UC San Diego, and Rady Children’s Hospital, explores strategies to harness cytotoxic CD4+ T cells to combat childhood cancers. Additional Discovery Grants backed research into modulating Nup37 for new cancer therapies, overcoming stromal barriers to KRAS inhibition in pancreatic cancer using VDR agonist therapy, targeting the OSM-OSMR signaling pathway in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, and investigating an epigenetic vulnerability in glioblastoma. Further projects included studies targeting BRD2 to prevent therapy-induced tumor reprogramming and immune evasion in glioblastoma, developing assays to target extrachromosomal DNA in high-risk medulloblastoma, examining the therapeutic potential of inhibiting MICAL2 for pancreatic cancer, and analyzing the role of proteostasis pathways in pediatric leukemia.
Curebound also awarded its 2025 Catalyst Grant, which provides $250,000 in non-dilutive funding to early-stage companies advancing novel cancer solutions. This year’s Catalyst Grant supported Illudent Therapeutics, led by Michael Kelner, MD, along with Sean Uryu and Venkata Kotaraju, for their work on precision small-molecule treatments that target cancers deficient in nucleotide-excision repair mechanisms.
Finally, the organization announced its 2025 Equity Grant recipients, each receiving $250,000 to support research aimed at improving cancer care in medically underserved and underrepresented communities. Funded projects included a SEER-Medicare analysis led by Brent Rose, MD, and colleagues to examine disparities in pre-diagnostic care among patients with prostate, breast, and colorectal cancers. Another equity initiative, led by Joshua Demb, PhD, and collaborators at San Diego State University, focuses on promotora-led cancer prevention in agricultural communities while studying environmental pollutants associated with gastrointestinal cancer risk in California’s Imperial Valley. A third project, headed by Sharon Choi, MD, PhD, and her team, supports a pilot study evaluating how structured exercise and nutritional counseling can improve outcomes for Hispanic and Latino men diagnosed with prostate cancer.
About Curebound
Curebound fundraises for and invests in cancer research with the power to save lives. Through collaborative grants, corporate partnerships, and strategic investments, Curebound accelerates better prevention, detection, and treatments for cancer. Headquartered in the major U.S. biotech hub of San Diego, amid 3,000+ life sciences companies, leading health systems, and world-class research institutions, Curebound partners with these organizations to forge interdisciplinary collaboration, foster knowledge sharing, and fund pioneering cancer research. So far, Curebound has funded $51.5 million in cancer research, awarding 170 study grants for 23 types of pediatric and adult cancers. This work has resulted in 30 expanded clinical trials reaching 1,864 patients and has spurred $161 million in follow-on funding for Curebound-supported investigators. Cancer is relentless – so is Curebound.
