Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences has named the award recipients of the 2024 Cancer Seed Funding Program.  Building on the success of the 2022 and 2023 cancer research pilot and integration award funding initiatives, this year the program awarded 14 new cancer research awards totaling $700,000. 

“We are committed to supporting collaborative research to create a national and international destination for access to the most advanced cancer therapies and interventions,” said Ben Movsas, Henry Ford + MSU Cancer Committee co-chair, Henry Ford Cancer medical director and radiation oncology chair. “Our Henry Ford + MSU cancer researchers are demonstrating the power of coming together, with examples of previous recipients moving forward with federally funded research proposals.” 

Over the last three years, Henry Ford + MSU has provided a total of $2.7 million through the Cancer Seed Funding Program. Each award includes a principal investigator from Michigan State University and a principal investigator from Henry Ford Health. 

“One of our primary goals is to close the gap in health care outcomes for cancer patients based on race, ethnicity, gender and socioeconomic status,” said Jeff MacKeigan, Henry Ford + MSU Cancer Committee co-chair and MSU Office of Research and Innovation senior advisor.  

With more than a third of the awards focusing on health disparities, Henry Ford + MSU has also selected unique and collaborative proposals that combine the clinical and scientific strengths of both organizations. In addition, the proposals provided foundational support to advance collaborative cancer projects toward an NCI grant application. 

The topic for this year’s program was Future NCI Grant Application. The recipients of the 2024 Cancer Seed Funding Program are listed below: 

• Christina Chan  from MSU and Ramandeep Rattan from Henry Ford 
• Sue Catherine Grady from MSU and Ikenna Okereke from Henry Ford 
• Sachi Horibata from MSU and Frederick Valeriote from Henry Ford 
• Sachi Horibata and Jamie Bernard from MSU and Ramandeep Rattan from Henry Ford 
• Thomas O'Halloran from MSU and Ling Huang from Henry Ford  
• Xiaoyu Liang from MSU and Hongsheng Gui from Henry Ford 
• Jeff MacKeigan and Katie Martin from MSU and Howard Crawford from Henry Ford 
• Kelly Hirko from MSU and Christine Neslund-Dudas from Henry Ford  
• Olorunseun Ogunwobi from MSU and Brian Theisen from Henry Ford 
• Jeff MacKeigan from MSU and Amanda Pilling from Henry Ford  
• Bryan Smith and Sunil Chakrapani from MSU and Atsushi Yoshida from Henry Ford  
• Horng-Shiuann Wu from MSU and Menghua Tao from Henry Ford  
• Mohammad Ghassemi from MSU and Kundan Thind from Henry Ford  
• Tommy Van Vo from MSU and Ramandeep Rattan from Henry Ford