The SITC Forward Fund is pleased to announce the recipients of 2021 SITC Fellowships and Technology Awards, to support the next generation of cancer immunotherapy and tumor immunology experts through dedicated funding of impactful research.
The SITC Fellowships and Technology Awards were established through the Forward Fund to support the development of early career investigators in the field to cultivate the next generation of cancer immunotherapy experts. Since 2014, SITC has committed more than $5 million in funding to deserving investigators with industry partnerships
The fellowship and technology award recipients will be honored during a ceremony at the society’s 36th Annual Meeting.
The 2021 SITC Fellowships recipients are:
 |
SITC-Bristol Myers Squibb Postdoctoral Cancer Immunotherapy Translational Fellowship
Recipient: Karlo Perica, MD, PhD
Institution: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Project Title: “Allogeneic CAR T Cell Therapy: Overcoming Host-Versus-Graft Immunity”
Award Amount: $200,000 (two-year)
|
 |
SITC-Amgen Cancer Immunotherapy in Hematologic Malignancies Fellowship
Recipient: Benjamin Goldenson, MD, PhD
Institution: University of California, San Diego
Project Title: “Chimeric Antigen Receptor Natural Killer Cells for the Treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukemia”
Award Amount: $100,000 (one-year)
|
 |
SITC-AstraZeneca Immunotherapy in Lung Cancer Clinical Fellowship
Recipient: Biagio Ricciuti, MD
Institution: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Project Title: “Dissecting the genomic correlates of response and acquired resistance to PD-(L)1 inhibition in non-small cell lung cancer”
Award Amount: $100,000 (one-year)
|
 |
SITC-Nektar Therapeutics Equity and Inclusion in Cancer Immunotherapy Fellowship
Recipient: Elen Torres, PhD
Institution: Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT
Project Title: “The role of tumor cell-intrinsic Sox2 in the anti-tumor immune response in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)”
Award Amount: $50,000 (one-year)
|
 |
2021 NCI Immunotherapy Fellowship
Recipient: Nicholas Tschernia, MD
Institution: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Award: Co-Sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and SITC, made possible in part by an educational grant from EMD Serono. This 1-year program allows the fellow to have exposure to multiple clinical immunotherapeutic approaches and also to key opinion leaders in the field of clinical immunotherapy. Click here for more information on this fellowship.
|
The 2021 SITC Technology Award recipients are:
 |
SITC-Akoya Spatial Phenotyping Award
Recipient: Laura Donovan, PhD
Institution: University College London, Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health
Project Title: “The genomic and spatial hierarchy of primary and recurrent tumour ecosystems”
Award: Access to Akoya’s Opal MOTiF™ immuno-oncology panels and the Vectra® Polaris whole-slide multiplex immunofluorescence platform
|
 |
SITC-NanoString Technologies Spatial Profiling Award
Recipient: Pauline Hamon, PhD
Institution: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Project Title: “Characterization of the molecular and spatial diversity of macrophages in HCC to resolve tumor resistance to immunotherapy”
Award: Access to NanoString Technologies’ GeoMx® Digital Spatial Profiler (DSP)
|
This year’s SITC Fellowships and Technology Awards were made possible through the generosity of Akoya BioSciences, Amgen, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP, Bristol Myers Squibb, NanoString Technologies, Nektar Therapeutics.