The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation has announced that four projects have been selected to receive development funding through the WARF Accelerator Oncology Diagnostics Challenge Grant.
The grant invited submissions for new technologies focused on biomarkers and other tools that help researchers and clinicians evaluate strategies for cancer prevention and treatment. From new assays to medical imaging tools, these projects may improve cancer patient outcomes throughout Wisconsin and beyond.
The selected projects are led by the following teams:
- Reid Alisch, Mahua Dey and Isabelle Renteria (Neurological Surgery) for a liquid biopsy for early detection of glioblastoma
- Diego Hernando and Greg Simchick (Radiology) for MRI-based oncology diagnostics with optimized quantification of diffusion and perfusion
- Muhammed Murtaza and Sarah Russell (Surgery) for a biomarker-based, minimally invasive, non-blood, liquid biopsy assay for pancreatic cancer screening
- Pallavi Tiwari and Olivia Krebs (Radiology) for integrated multi-scale prognostic signatures via early fusion of radiomics, histology and genomics for outcome prediction in cancer
“New technologies for diagnosing cancer or tracking disease progression have the potential to improve outcomes for millions of patients in the U.S. and around the world,” says Erik Iverson, CEO of WARF. “We’re delighted to champion UW-Madison innovators tackling the challenge of combating cancer.”