Funded Research
About Funded Research
The MRF has funded over $26 million in melanoma research since 1998. Our research grants support the study of melanoma prevention, diagnosis, and treatment across the spectrum of the disease, including cutaneous, ocular, and mucosal melanoma. The MRF Research Program supports research across their entire career- from medical students to established investigators. The types of grants supported include:
Peer Reviewed SAC/BC/OM Grants
- Team Awards (established in 2014) – Two-year awards, up to $250,000 per year
- Established (Senior) Investigator Awards (established in 2006) – Two-year awards, up to $100,000 per year
- Career Development (Junior) Awards (established in 1998) – Two-year awards, up to $50,000 per year
- Pilot Awards (established in 2022) – One-year awards, up to $50,000
- Resident/Fellow Awards (established in 2024) – One-year awards, up to $10,000
- Medical Student Awards (established in 2011) – One-year awards, up to $3,000
Research Awards
- ASCO/Conquer Cancer Endowed Merit Award (sponsored by the MRF since 2023) – One-year awards, $10,000 per year
- Society for Melanoma Research Young Investigator Award (sponsored by the MRF since 2013) – One-year awards, $5,000 per year
- Society for Melanoma Research Christopher J. Marshall Award (sponsored by the MRF since 2015) – One-year awards, $5,000 per year
- Donor-directed – donor awards to fund specific areas of melanoma research
Occasionally, we also have special opportunities available that do not adhere to our usual categories.
Filter by State, Melanoma Type, Year, and Grant Category
Melanoma Type
Year
Grant Category
2020 Research Grants
Shruthy Suresh, PhD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
2024 Research Grants
Devarati Mitra, MD, PhD
Neoadjuvant immunotherapy and radiotherapy for mucosal melanoma
Elena Ezhkova, PhD, MS
UV-Induced Epigenetic Changes in the Epidermis in Promoting Melanoma
Weilia Ma, PhD, MS
Effect of Microglia Type I IFN Response in Melanoma Brain Metastasis
Pietro Berico, PhD, MS
A gene regulatory network driving melanoma immune evasion
2023 Research Grants
Bruce Ksander, PhD
Identification of molecular pathways that drive uveal melanoma metastasis
Kristen Richards, MD
Evaluation of cutaneous immune related adverse events by morphotype
Xiaonan Xu, MD, PhD
Understand metastasis of uveal melanoma in vivo via novel mouse models
Lilit Karapetyan, MD
Deciphering the role of APRIL/TNFSF13 in melanoma-associated TLS formation
2022 Research Grants
Leslie K. Dennis, PhD, MS
How melanoma patients undergoing treatment at oncology practices are affected by having a positive COVID-19 test
Emily Bernstein, PhD
Chromatin Remodeling Alterations and Consequences for Melanoma Metastasis
Hilary Coller, PhD
Noncanonical Autophagy Inhibition as a New Approach to Melanoma Therapy
Brent Hanks, MD, PhD
Role of the Gli2 Pathway in Melanoma Immunotherapy Resistance
2021 Research Grants
Mackenzie Wehner, MD, MPhil
Melanoma Risks and Risk Prediction in Patients with Actinic Keratosis
Nicolas Vabret, PhD
Harnessing Epigenetic therapies to License Melanoma Vaccine
Jessalyn Ubellacker, PhD
Targeting metabolic vulnerabilities of melanoma metastasis in lymph
Colt Egelston, PhD
Immunotherapy using personalized T cell receptor engineered T cells
2020 Research Grants
Diwakar Davar, MD
Integrative Analysis of Prognostic Factors to Neoadjuvant Nivolumab/CMP-001 in Stage III B/C/D Melanoma
Linda Malkas, PhD
Novel Target for Melanoma Therapeutic Development
Thorsten Mempel, MD, PhD
Converting Regulatory into Proinflammatory Anti-Tumor Effector T Cells
Jeffrey Ravetch, MD, PhD
Defining the Mechanisms of Resistance to Anti-CTLA4 Antibodies in the TME