Merkel Cell Carcinoma Team Lands Major NIH Grant After 4-Year Effort
The $14.3M grant will support 60 scientists across 4 institutions over 5 years.
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has officially renewed the Program Project Grant, “Immunobiology and Immune Therapy for Merkel Cell Carcinoma,” led by Paul Nghiem, MD, PhD, at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center.
The $14.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) began on August 1, 2025, and will extend through 2030. It supports collaborative research across four institutions: Fred Hutch Cancer Center, University of Washington, University of Michigan, and University of Virginia, involving more than 60 investigators and staff. Many of the grant recipients are members of the MC3 Institute, highlighting the strength of this growing research community.
"I am incredibly appreciative of the diverse and talented team that has worked over the past four years to compete for this very precious funding. The process of planning and writing greatly improved our ability to carry out the work. I truly believe these studies will translate to more lives saved, and insights that will be important in more common cancer types." –Dr. Paul Nghiem
The grant includes three main scientific projects, three research cores (centralized shared resources), administrative support, and patient outreach and education, all focused on understanding how Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) evades the immune system and identifying new treatments to overcome resistance to current immunotherapies.
By leveraging the unique biology of virus-driven MCC and an extensive specimen repository and clinical outcomes database, the team is well-positioned to make meaningful strides toward improving outcomes. This renewal represents a critical step forward in advancing care and treatment for Merkel cell carcinoma.
The first funding period was from April 2019 through March 2025. It provided $12 million in funding and resulted in 93 publications that were cited 1900 times. The first funding cycle led to over a dozen changes in management regarding blood tests and therapies for MCC as adopted by national cancer guidelines.
Project Leaders
Project 1: Augmented Transgenic TCR-mediated tumor immuno-therapy.
Project 2: Characterizing and Overcoming Failure to Respond to PD-1 Blockade Therapy
Project 3: Immunobiology and clinical significance of the MCPyV immune response
- Justin Taylor, PhD (Taylor Lab)
- Denise Galloway, PhD (Galloway Lab)
- David Koelle, MD (Koelle Lab)
- Anj Dlugosz, MD (UM Skin Research Center (UM-SRC))
- Monique Verhaegen, PhD
Core Leaders
Core 1: Administration & Clinical Support
Core 2: ImmunoPathology
Core 3: Specimen & Data
Core 4: Biostatistics & Bioinformatics
Program Project Grant q&a
What strategies or novel approaches will the research teams explore to overcome resistance to current immunotherapies for Merkel cell carcinoma?
Project 1 will use technology to reprogram a patients’ own immune cells to target MCC with greater strength.
Project 2 will explore giving multiple therapies in combination to help patients who have limited treatment options.
Project 3 will seek to understand how the immune system coordinates an anti-cancer response (with B cells and antibodies) so we can better design immune therapies.
Why are so many institutions working together on this project?
To make the greatest impact, we are leveraging experts in various areas in a collaborative approach.
Why is studying the immune system so important for treating Merkel cell carcinoma?
MCC is a cancer that the immune system can easily “see," but the cancer quickly figures out how to “hide” from immune cells. If we can figure out how to prevent MCC from hiding, we can help more patients live cancer free.
