Cancer Counteroffensive

Research from UF urologists shrinks cancerous tumors in mice, and prevents their return. The next target: people

Hijacked cells

Over the next five years, a recent $2.5 million grant from the 1923 Fund, a private foundation, will help UF researchers Sergei Kusmartsev, Ph.D., and William Donelan, Ph.D., develop the team and resources needed to continue research on novel immunotherapy treatments for bladder cancer.

The goal is to bring a promising new treatment option to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval and begin clinical trials in the next few years.

“This grant gives us a lot of freedom to expand our preclinical research, hire people, and buy the equipment necessary to develop treatments people may use in the future,” says Kusmartsev, an assistant professor in the Department of Urology, who has spent his career conducting research that gets us closer to using immunotherapies for cancer treatment.

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