DaCCoTA Awardees
Recipients of Feasibility Pilot Grants
PI - Estelle Leclerc, PhD (NDSU), Co-PI - Thomas Wambach, MD (Fargo VA), Title - RAGE subcellular localization in human melanoma tumors.
PI – Stefan Vetter, PhD (NDSU), Co-PI – Anu Gaba, MD (Sanford), Title - Prognostic and therapeutic value of two IDG-focus kinases in breast cancer treatment.
PI- Lyle Best, MD (Turtle Mountain Community College), Greg Gapp, MD (Quentin Burdick Health Care Center), Title – Tissue- and genotype-specific expression of C-reactive protein: Relation to cancer biology.
PI – Dharmakeerthi Nawarathna, PhD (NDSU), Co-PIs – Glenn Dorsam, PhD (NDSU), Samuel Amin, MD (Sanford), Melanie Chihak, MD (Sanford), Title – Biomanufacturing of safe and non-viral CAR T-cells for cancer immunotherapy.
PI – Trung Le, PhD (NDSU), Co-PIs – Arveity Setty, MD (Sanford), Radhakrishna Vegunta, MD (Sanford), Title – Point-of-care obstruction sleep apnea (OSA) monitoring and forecasting platform for cancer patients.
PI - Amber Lyon-Colbert, PhD, MS (UND), Co-I - Marc Basson, MD, PhD, MBA (UND), Advisors - Gary Schwartz, PhD, MPH (UND), and Marilyn Klug, PhD (UND), Title - Groundwater contaminants and colorectal cancer outcomes in North Dakota.
PI - Katie Reindl, PhD (NDSU), Co-PI - Daniel Tuvin, MD (Sanford), Title - Use of pancreatic tumor organoids to identify personalized therapies.
PI - Jyotika Sharma (UND), Co-Is – Atul Sharma (UND), Todor Dentchev (Altru), Title – Neutrophil functions in breast cancer.
PI – Patrick Ronan, PhD (USD/VA), Co-PI – Samuel Sathyanesan, PhD (USD), Co-Is - Steven Powell, MD (Sanford), Jason Peterson, PhD (Sioux Falls VA), Title - Treatment of cognitive impairments in cancer.
PI – Jonathan Bleeker, MD (Sanford), Co-PI – Michael Kareta, PhD (Sanford), Collaborator - Preston Steen, MD (Sanford), Title - Investigating the utility of circulating tumor DNA in predicting outcomes following definitive multimodality therapy for locally advanced esophageal/gastroesophageal junction cancer.
Recipients of Ready-to-Go Pilot Grants
PI - Sanku Mallik, PhD (NDSU), Co-PI - Daniel Tuvin, MD (Sanford), Title - Nanoparticles for drug delivery to triple-negative breast cancer.
PI – Stefan Vetter, PhD (NDSU), Co-I – Anu Gaba, MD (Sanford), Title – Prognostic and therapeutic value of two IDG-focus kinases in breast cancer treatment.
PI - Estelle Leclerc, PhD (NDSU), Co-PI - Daniel Tuvin (Sanford), Title – Efficacy of RAGE inhibitors with dacarbazine and PDX models of melanoma.
PI – Kalpana Katti, PhD (NDSU), Co-PIs – Anu Gaba, MD (Sanford) and Dinesh Katti, PhD (NDSU), Title – Design of humanoid testbeds of breast cancer bone metastasis.
PI - Grigoriy Sereda, PhD (USD), Co-I - Khosrow Rezvani, MD, PhD (USD) Title - Site-specific delivery of Veratridine: A novel targeted therapy in colorectal cancer.
Recipients of Community Engagement Pilot Grants
PI – Nicole Redvers, ND, MPHc (UND), Co-I – Don Warne (UND), Title – Developing a colorectal cancer tribal community engagement strategy in North Dakota.
PI – Siobhan Wescott, MD, MPH (UND), Co-I - Jacqueline Gray, PhD (UND), Title - American Indian Adult Tobacco Survey Dakota Initiative.
PI - David Schmitz, MD (UND), Co-I Gary Schwartz (UND), Title - The ND Quit-Line as a Tool for Identifying Disparities in Radon Knowledge Among Smokers.
Recipients of Covid-19-Related Pilot Grants
PI – Archana Dhasarathy, PhD (UND), Co-Is -Motoki Takaku, PhD (UND), Ryan Askeland, MD (Sanford), Title – Phenotypic and Epigenomic Impact of SARS-Cov-2 (Covid-19) Nucleocapsid Protein in Breast Cancer.
PI - Fernando Bula Rudas, MD (USD), Co-Is - Victor Huber, PhD (USD), Santiago Lopez, MD (Sanford), Title - Comparison of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in cancer and non-cancer pediatric patients in South Dakota.
PI - Victor Huber, PhD (USD), Co-Is - Santiago Lopez, MD (Sanford), Khosrow Rezvani, MD, PhD (USD), Title - Detection of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in cancer patients.
Recipients of DaCCoTA Scholars Awards
PI – Khosrow Rezvani, MD, PhD (USD), Mentors – George Angelos, MD (Sanford) and Muslim Atiq, MD (Sanford), Title – AKT/mTOR pathway in obesity and colorectal cancer (CRC): Molecular interconnections and potential clinical applications.
PI – Paola Vermeer, PhD (Sanford), Mentors – Maria Bell, MD (Sanford) and Keith Miskimins, PhD (USD), Title – Tumor innervation in ovarian cancer.
PI – Sandeep Singhal, PhD (UND), Mentor – Don Sens, PhD (UND), Title – Artificial intelligence to correlate proteomic and genomic data together with clinicopathologic and demographic attributes to predict breast cancer outcome.
PI – Soonhee Roh, PhD (USD), Mentor – DenYelle Kenyon, PhD (USD), Title – Intervention to promote breast cancer screening among American Indian women.
PI - Dali Sun, PhD (NDSU), Mentor - Preston Steen, MD (Sanford), Title - Validation of ExoIPThT a Novel Assay Targeting Exosomal Proteins’ Secondary Structure as a Pancreatic Cancer Screening Assay.
Recipients of DaCCoTA Community Engagement Scholars Awards
PI – Melanie Nadeau, PhD, MPH (UND), Mentor – Marilyn Klug, PhD (UND), Title – Creating and administering a tribally informed risk and protective factor survey utilizing an indigenous mixed methods approach.
Clinical Research Opportunities Program Awardees
PI – Dan Steventon, DPT (Sanford), Mentors – Sam Milanovich, MD (Sanford) and Patti Berg-Poppe, PhD (USD), Title – Tool for monitoring chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN).
PI - Anu Gaba, MD (Sanford), Mentors – Ross Crosby, PhD (Sanford) and Kristi Egland, PhD (Sanford), Title – Breast cancer patterns and behavior in American Indians in the US.