2025 LCRF | BAYER RESEARCH AWARD ON INNOVATIVE THERAPEUTIC STRATEGIES TO TREAT LUNG CANCERS HARBORING HER2 MUTATIONS AND/OR OTHER HER2 ALTERATIONS

The last 10-15 years have seen accelerated clinical trials and FDA approvals of targeted therapies for non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) in part due to advances in molecular profiling of tumors. Many of these targeted therapies are directed against oncogenic drivers. The HER family of tyrosine kinases include HER1 (epidermal growth factor receptor [EGFR] or ERBB1), HER2 (HER2/neu or ERBB2), HER3, and HER4. This grant mechanism will focus on the science behind HER2 alterations as oncogenic drivers of malignancy and/or the development of novel therapeutic approaches for patients with tumors harboring HER2 mutations and/or other HER2 alterations.

We encourage applications on a wide variety of topics related to HER2 alterations and lung cancer, including but not limited to the following:

• The proposal must be associated with a clinical trial, either ongoing or planned as a result of the project. The trial can investigate novel treatment approaches, new therapies (i.e. next generation drugs or agents with novel mechanisms of action), and novel combinations. Therapy can include targeted agents (TKIs), antibody-drug conjugates, immunotherapies, cell therapies etc. if there is a reasonably strong rationale supporting the investigation.
• The proposal must have a program of basic and/or translational work associated with the clinical trial. Topics of interest can include but are not limited to mechanisms of primary or secondary resistance, studies on the immune landscape and tumor microenvironment, biology and mechanisms of tumor progression, identification of biomarkers to predict sensitivity to specific therapies, methods for optimizing treatment (efficacy and/or tolerability), etc.
• The proposal must include studies in patients with lung cancer harboring HER2-mutations and /or other HER2 alterations.
• A patient/patient advocate needs to be part of the research team applying for the grant and that this individual should have a role in the design of the research.

Eligibility Criteria

Investigators must be affiliated with a non-profit, academic or research institution. An applicant must have a postdoctoral or clinical research fellow appointment and/or a faculty position and may have any level of research experience.

Applicants are prohibited from applying if they have received funding from the LCRF within the last 4 years and from applying in more than one of LCRF’s funding tracks in the same cycle.

Application

Submissions will be evaluated for sound scientific rationale, study design, feasibility, and creativity/innovation. Reviewers at the full proposal will be asked to provide an impact score reflecting their assessment of the likelihood for the project to exert a sustained, powerful influence on the field of lung cancer research.

Deadline: 3 March 2025.