# Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Program

> **NIH NIH P30** · MAYO CLINIC ROCHESTER · 2020 · $100,411

## Abstract

DAVID F. AND MARGARET T. GROHNE FAMILY CANCER IMMUNOLOGY AND IMMUNOTHERAPY 
PROGRAM PROJECT SUMMARY 
The Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy (CII) Program is a longstanding basic and translational sciences 
program within the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center (MCCC). In 2016, this program was officially endowed by the 
David F. and Margaret T. Grohne Family. The Program continues to work toward better understanding the 
mechanisms of immunity, the relationship between inflammation and cancer, and the development of 
innovative solutions to combat cancer through immune therapy. The CII Program has contributed significantly 
to checkpoint blockade therapy, which has resulted in a major change in the standard of care of several 
different cancers. It is now poised to make additional major contributions such as using antibody-targeted 
chemotherapeutics, effectively targeting melanoma and ovarian cancers, which have proven nonresponsive to 
established therapies. The Program includes 35 members, representing 14 different departments in the Mayo 
Clinic College of Medicine and Science. The current membership is a historically highly productive team with a 
total publication record in excess of 5000 papers that has garnered over 245,000 citations. The main goal of 
the Program is to provide an interactive, supportive, and durable scientific environment to foster our four 
principal cutting-edge Specific Aims: (1) To develop new knowledge about how the immune system functions, 
(2) To develop novel antibody-based therapies for the treatment of cancers (3) To identify and develop vaccine 
approaches that can be implemented to protect against cancer recurrence and improve the efficacy of immune 
modulation with checkpoint inhibitors, and (4) To develop innovative strategies to redirect non-tumor antigen- 
specific T cells to attack cancer. The CII Program has been consistently well-funded and currently is supported 
by extramural peer-reviewed grants totaling $3.6M in direct costs of which ~35% are from NCI. Direct funding 
from non-peer-reviewed grants is $8.4M resulting in an overall total of $12M. This is a 20% increase over the 
last funding period. In the 2013-2017 timeframe, Program members published 650 cancer-related publications, 
of which 19% were intraprogrammatic, 57% were interprogrammatic, and 124 were published in journals with 
impact factors ≥10, reflecting the quality of the work and illustrating the high degree of interaction the CII 
Program members have with members of other MCCC Programs.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9938470
- **Project number:** 5P30CA015083-46
- **Recipient organization:** MAYO CLINIC ROCHESTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Keith L. Knutson
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $100,411
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → —

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9938470

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9938470, Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Program (5P30CA015083-46). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9938470. Licensed CC0.

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