# Emerging Strategies for Therapy of Metastatic Brain Cancer

> **NIH NIH R35** · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $895,779

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
 Brain cancer remains a devastating disease and in particular, brain metastases (BM) from breast cancer
represent the leading cause of fatality for women. The major hindrance to significant clinical benefit for BM is the
poor permeability of monoclonal antibodies (i.e. trastuzumab) across the blood brain barrier (BBB), resulting in
surgical resection and radiation therapies as the first line therapeutic options. With our team of experienced and
highly accomplished scientists with strong track record in basic, translational, and clinical research, we propose
to advance the science of metastases to the brain by focusing on 1) understanding of fundamental biology of
HER2+ breast cancer metastases to the brain via patient tissue-based genetic dissection of risk factors 2) the
advancement in real-time of visualization of cancer cells and neural stem cells (NSCs) targeting HER2+ BM and
3) the application of targeted NSC delivery of trastuzumab analogs to suppress the growth of HER2+ BM. The
novel paradigm established by this application will advance our understanding of how cancer cells invade and
spread thru the brain and potentially help herald an era of genetically engineered stem cells as targeted delivery
conduit for anti-HER2 therapy against HER2+ BM.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10976291
- **Project number:** 1R35CA283939-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** MACIEJ S LESNIAK
- **Activity code:** R35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $895,779
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-08-01 → 2031-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10976291

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10976291, Emerging Strategies for Therapy of Metastatic Brain Cancer (1R35CA283939-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10976291. Licensed CC0.

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