# Cellular Mechanisms

> **NIH NIH P30** · UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA · 2020 · $48,472

## Abstract

Cellular Mechanisms Program Summary
Cellular Mechanisms (CM) is a new research program in the Masonic Cancer Center (MCC) formed when the
Cell Signaling and Tumor Microenvironment Programs merged into one highly integrated program to
strengthen the science of cellular mechanisms of cancer and expand opportunities for translation of research
discoveries into new therapeutic modalities. The Program’s goal is to identify biological mechanisms that drive
cancer development, tumor progression, and metastasis, including therapy-resistant recurrence, and then
develop novel targeted therapies. The 3 integrated Aims are 1) to identify oncogenic signaling pathways within
and between diverse cells in tumors that can be targeted to limit tumor growth, invasion, and metastasis; 2) to
define epigenetic events in tumor transcriptomes that enhance malignancy or resistance to therapy; 3) to
determine how tumors cause protumorigenic changes in the associated stroma and how “cancerized” stroma
and tumor-reactive host cells impact tumor progression, invasion, migration, and metastasis. The Program is
co-led by Drs. Carol Lange and James McCarthy and has 45 members, representing 19 departments and 8
schools or colleges. For the last budget year, CM members were supported by $4.8 million in direct costs from
the National Cancer Institute; cancer-focused, sponsored funding from all sources totaled over $10.7 million
(direct costs). Since 2013, CM members have published 1027 papers, 8% of which resulted from
intraprogrammatic collaborations, 22% from interprogrammatic collaborations, and 82% from external
collaborations; 89 were published in journals with an impact score of 10 or higher. Since 2013, 221 clinical
trials across all clinical research categories have opened under this programmatic area and have accrued 1132
subjects. The MCC has provided substantial value to the program, including recruitment of 5 new faculty and
funding of $1.08M in pilot projects that have led to over $5.5 million in externally funded grants. CM members
use all 10 MCC Shared Resources. In addition, the MCC was instrumental in supporting the 2nd annual
Regional Midwest Tumor Microenvironment Meeting in May of 2015, which hosted 132 attendees from 7
academic institutions. Members of this well-integrated interdisciplinary Program bring complimentary expertise
to identifying how tumor and host cell interactions impact tumor progression, elucidating the complexities of
metastatic and hormone-refractory disease, and determining how deregulation of signaling inputs to
transcriptional control might be exploited to improve therapy. The study of targetable factors related to stroma
remodeling and fibrosis is also a research strength. Novel therapies are being developed using antibodies,
recombinant toxins, small molecules, and medicinal chemistry/fragment-based drug design to target signaling
pathways and alter tumor metabolism. Program members have substantial interactions with the Immunology
and ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9859367
- **Project number:** 5P30CA077598-22
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
- **Principal Investigator:** James B. McCarthy
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $48,472
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → —

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9859367

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9859367, Cellular Mechanisms (5P30CA077598-22). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9859367. Licensed CC0.

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