Gastric and esophageal cancers are among the deadliest malignancies — in 2023 alone, they claimed over a million lives globally. Despite recent scientific advances, these upper GI tract cancers remain stubbornly difficult to diagnose and treat, with limited therapeutic options leading to poor prognoses.
In response to this challenge, The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research, DeGregorio Family Foundation, and Torrey Coast Foundation are proud to announce three new ASPIRE Awards designed to fuel breakthrough research in upper GI cancers. These grants, to be administered by The Mark Foundation, are the result of a focused call for proposals that went out globally in 2024, aiming to attract teams of collaborators to submit their best research ideas that could address this important area of unmet need. Each grant provides $250,000 of research funding over 12 months.
“As the only public foundation solely devoted to funding research grants for gastric and esophageal cancers, we are pleased that The Mark Foundation has focused on these deadly, underfunded diseases,” said Lynn DeGregorio, President and Founder of the DeGregorio Family Foundation.
The Mark Foundation’s ASPIRE program offers unique flexibility and focuses on accelerating high-risk, high-reward research, making it a natural fit for upper GI cancer research. One remarkable aspect of this focused grant call has been its ability to attract a diverse cohort of researchers — in part because the award offers not only funding but also valuable preclinical resources, including cell lines, organoids, and mouse models, provided by program co-sponsors DeGregorio Family Foundation and Torrey Coast Foundation. The awardees include both established experts in upper GI cancers and investigators who are bringing fresh perspectives and cutting-edge approaches from other areas of cancer research.
Breakthroughs in challenging fields like upper GI cancer research often emerge when researchers bring fresh perspectives and techniques from other disciplines,” says Ryan Schoenfeld, PhD, CEO of The Mark Foundation. “With gastric and esophageal cancers accounting for over 1.5 million new cases and more than 1.3 million deaths globally each year, the need for innovation has never been greater. By partnering with two leading philanthropic organizations in the field, the DeGregorio Family Foundation and the Torrey Coast Foundation, we are driving the cross-pollination of ideas for transformative discoveries.
Awardees’ research aims include:
Developing new targeted therapies for esophageal cancer: Ali Shilatifard, PhD, and Zibo Zhao, PhD, at Northwestern University, will focus on a promising new approach to treating esophageal cancer with specific epigenetic mutations found in about 25% of cases with an existing FDA-approved drug targeting key metabolic pathways. Their findings could lead to a more personalized therapeutic approach.
Overcoming resistance to immunotherapies: Sarah Derks, MD, PhD, of Amsterdam University Medical Center, and Wilbert Zwart, PhD, of The Netherlands Cancer Institute, will investigate how epigenetic changes affect the immune response in gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma. Their goal is to identify new targets that could help overcome resistance to immunotherapy and make these treatments more effective.
Targeting a key enzyme in gastric cancer: Zheng Chen, MD, PhD, and colleagues Alejandro Villarino, PhD, Yan Guo, PhD, Peter Hosein, PhD, and Oliver McDonald, MD, PhD, all at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, are exploring the role of a specific enzyme that they believe may be a key driver of tumor growth and immune suppression in gastric cancers. By targeting this enzyme, they hope to develop new therapies that can both shrink tumors and boost the immune response against gastric cancer.
ABOUT THE MARK FOUNDATION FOR CANCER RESEARCH ASPIRE AWARD PROGRAM
The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research ASPIRE Awards are designed to enable innovative approaches to solving high-impact problems in cancer research that tend to fall outside the scope of other funding opportunities. These awards support high-risk, high-reward projects with research plans designed to answer key feasibility and proof-of-concept questions in an accelerated timeframe, typically one year. Projects that successfully demonstrate feasibility may be selected to apply for additional funding in a second phase to further develop their innovative concepts and increase the speed to impact for cancer patients.
ASPIRE Awards supports a broad spectrum of projects from bench to bedside, with special consideration given to previously unaddressed questions and challenging concepts. Since 2018, The Mark Foundation has provided over $48 million in funding to support 118 ASPIRE awards across 62 institutions in 12 countries. Learn more.