May 11, 2026
Funding totaling $750,000 raised through Rush to Crush Cancer is supporting five pilot projects to advance basic science, translational/clinical science, and population science at UPMC Hillman. Each award is $150,000 to be distributed over two years.
This year’s funded projects reflect an innovative portfolio of research aimed at advancing cancer treatment through more personalized approaches. These studies will advance cancer treatment, improve patient safety, address disparities in cancer outcomes, and bring us closer to achieving our vision to achieve the extraordinary: life without cancer.
Sawa Ito is advancing precision approaches in stem cell transplantation by reducing treatment toxicity and integrating biomarker-driven artificial intelligence to better predict patient risk and personalize care. Stem cell transplantation can cure high-risk blood cancers, but patients often face serious side effects and infection risks. This study will test whether lowering the dose of a standard drug used after transplant, called cyclophosphamide, can make the procedure safer without reducing its effectiveness. It will also explore how blood tests and artificial intelligence (AI) models can help predict each patient’s risk. The ultimate goal is to create safer, more effective transplant options for patients with blood cancers and to personalize the transplant care using an AI model.
Francesmary Modugno is investigating how tumor biology, the immune system, and lived experiences intersect in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), with a focus on improving outcomes for underserved populations. TNBC doesn’t respond to most treatments, causing poor survival. For Black women and women living in rural areas, survival is noticeably worse. In past studies on ovarian cancer, Modugno and a team of researchers at UPMC Hillman found that where a woman lives and how her body handles stress affect survival, with a greater impact for Black women. These observations were related to how the nervous system affected the immune system’s fight against cancer. This study will repeat that work for TNBC and do corresponding laboratory research to find new ways to improve the immune-nervous system interactions to boost TNBC survival.
Jessie Nedrow is developing CEACAM5-targeted therapies to enhance immune cell recruitment and activation in pancreatic cancer, with the goal of improving survival through combination treatment strategies. The project will alter a specialized tool built by Nedrow and her UPMC Hillman team that targets the protein CEACAM5, which is abundant on pancreatic cancer cells but barely detectable on normal tissue. In one test, Nedrow will use the tool to bring immune cells to attack the tumor, and in another test, she will use radiation to kill cancer cells and help the immune cells work better. Ultimately, she hopes to learn how to combine both treatments to lead to better, more effective ways to help people with pancreatic cancer live longer.
Abby Overacre-Delgoffe is exploring how regulatory T cells influence both the effectiveness and side effects of immunotherapy, with the aim of improving treatment responses while minimizing toxicity. Immune based therapies have drastically improved cancer treatments, yet, most cancers do not respond, and if they do, patients often experience autoimmune-like toxicities, where the immune system starts to attack healthy tissues in addition to the tumor. This leads to stopping treatment or severe side effects. This study aims to address a major question: how can we use immunotherapies without driving toxicities? Overacre is exploring how certain immune cells that suppress the body’s immune system, called regulatory T cells or Tregs, influence both how well immunotherapy works, and the side effects it can cause. This information will be used to drive better outcomes for patients.
Orlando Scharer & Benjamin Nacev are uncovering how the drug trabectedin works at a molecular level in sarcoma to enable more precise, effective, and personalized cancer treatments. Trabectedin is used to treat some soft tissue sarcomas, including synovial sarcoma and myoxid liposarcoma. Trabectedin induces a unique type of DNA damage that kills cancer cells. Synovial sarcoma and myoxid liposarcoma are caused by fusion proteins that bind DNA and affect how genes are switched on and off. This study uses a new tool called TRABI-seq to determine how and where trabectedin causes DNA damage and aims to understand how this damage occurs in relation to fusion protein activity. Scharer and Nacev hope to predict who will benefit most from trabectedin treatment and find ways to overcome resistance.
The UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Developmental Pilot Program is intended to support the development of cancer research led by UPMC Hillman members and to stimulate new applications for extramural funding from government agencies and foundations. All UPMC Hillman faculty members were encouraged to apply and must have participated in at least one 2025 Rush to Crush Cancer activity; for example, attending the Bespoke Bash, joining the PNC Mile to Crush Cancer, participating in the bike ride (virtually or in-person), volunteering, or donating. In addition, applicants must have a University of Pittsburgh faculty appointment and be a UPMC Hillman Cancer Center member. (Membership requires going through an application process that can be found on the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Membership webpage.)
Congratulations to all awardees! Their work reflects the dedication, creativity, and collaboration that drives meaningful impact in our work and brings us closer to achieving the UPMC Hillman vision to achieve the extraordinary: life without cancer.
