Salk Researcher Awarded Funding To Boost Immunotherapy For Pancreatic Cancer

Salk Institute Professor Diana Hargreaves was named a 2025 All-Star Translational Award Program grantee by nan V Foundation for Cancer Research. The grant comes arsenic a nickname of Hargreaves' exceptional occurrence pinch her erstwhile V Foundation assistance successful 2016, which aimed to place amended supplier targets for cancers pinch mutations successful a multi-protein analyzable called SWI/SNF that regulates DNA building and stability. She and her collaborator, Gregory Botta, an subordinate professor astatine UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, will person $1 cardinal to beforehand her caller task to amended immunotherapy-a curen that utilizes nan body's ain immune cells to conflict cancer-in patients pinch pancreatic cancer.

Diana is simply a existent innovator successful nan section of crab research, and this 2nd grant from nan V Foundation is simply a testament to her continued technological excellence. We enthusiastically support her efforts to construe nan basal discoveries she has made regarding immune checkpoint blockade to nan curen of pancreatic cancer, which frankincense acold has been challenging to reside pinch immunotherapy."

Gerald Joyce, Salk President

The V Foundation was founded by ESPN and nationalist hoops champion and coach Jim Valvano to money "game-changing" crab investigation grants successful North America. The foundation's competitory action process identifies scientists for illustration Hargreaves who are utilizing cutting-edge approaches to tackle crab successful innovative ways.

V Foundation All-Star awards reinvest successful erstwhile assistance recipients. Hargreaves' first V Foundation task successful 2016 aimed to find caller strategies for treating epithelial ovarian cancers pinch mutations successful ARID1A, a macromolecule successful nan SWI/SNF complex. Her caller project, titled "Preclinical and Clinical Studies of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy successful SWI/SNF Altered aliases Inhibited Pancreatic Cancer," explores nan domiciled of this aforesaid macromolecule analyzable successful pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic crab is group to go nan 2nd starring origin of cancer-related deaths successful nan United States by 2030. Due to its precocious mortality rate-roughly 90% of patients-the request to create effective therapies for pancreatic crab is urgent. Immunotherapies specified arsenic immune checkpoint inhibitors person revolutionized crab attraction for different crab types but person been mostly ineffective successful nan pancreas-except, notably, successful patients pinch SWI/SNF mutations, for whom Botta recovered that immunotherapy is acold much effective.

Already, Hargreaves' discoveries person revealed that ARID1A mutations make immunotherapy much effective for group pinch difficult-to-treat cancers. Hargreaves will now analyse whether nan immunotherapy-boosting effect of mutated ARID1A extends to SWI/SNF mutations much generally, arsenic good arsenic trial whether SWI/SNF-blocking narcotics could amended objective outcomes for nan 85-90% of patients pinch unmutated SWI/SNF tumors. In parallel, Botta will tally an investigator-initiated proceedings of operation immunotherapy and chemotherapy for metastatic pancreatic crab patients pinch SWI/SNF mutations. Collectively, these studies could thief specify biomarkers for immunotherapy successful pancreatic crab and boost diligent survival.

These studies build upon a collaborative assistance awarded to Botta and Hargreaves done Curebound. Hargreaves was named nan American Cancer Society's Early-Career Researcher of nan Year successful 2024 and a Pew-Stewart Scholar for Cancer Research in 2019. She is besides a leader successful Salk's caller Neuroimmunology Initiative.