Yosemite-American Cancer Society Award 2025 Request for Applications

The 2025 Yosemite-American Cancer Society Award supports innovative research to develop methodologies, establish feasibility, or pilot high risk/high reward projects to advance the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of cancer as outlined below.

Preliminary Data is not required. 

TOPIC #1

Treatment approaches involving targeted toxins such as Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs) and radiopharmaceuticals have become vital therapeutic modalities for cancer treatment in recent years, leading to a wave of FDA approvals across multiple tumor types. Despite cancer cell-specific toxins showing great potential, key challenges to be addressed include toxicity, thoughtful approaches to payload/linker/antigen/indication selections, and treatment resistance. Targeted toxins have great potential to achieve better clinical efficacies and further innovation about specific challenges will unlock insights to overcome some of the current clinical hurdles.

Project proposals should broadly fit into these categories:

•  Novel payloads, including molecules with new pathways or modalities
• Approaches to address resistance and/or tumor selectively and/or penetration
• Novel targets
• Tactics to broaden the therapeutic window for targeted approaches

TOPIC #2

Significant advancement has been observed in the field of cancer vaccines, especially for solid tumors. Further innovation in non-cell-based cancer vaccines for solid tumors, encompassing both therapeutic and prophylactic treatment strategies, would greatly aide in pushing the field forward. Approaches to make vaccines more efficacious and/or more accessible to patients at scale will be considered:

• Combination therapies
• Immune adjuvants
• Innovative delivery systems
• Novel targets
• Optimizing neoantigen recognition/ engagement

Research Authority due date: 25.5.25