Cancer Research Institute

The Cancer Research Institute (CRI) is a US non-profit organization funding cancer research. Based in New York City, CRI was founded in 1953 to develop new treatments for cancer. It is a funding body for research rather than a research institute itself. It was founded by Helen Coley Nauts and Oliver R. Grace with a $2,000 grant from Nelson Rockefeller, created in honor of Nauts' father, William Coley, an American orthopedic surgeon and a pioneer of cancer immunotherapy.[1]

The Institute focuses on immunological treatments for cancer, both single treatment approaches and treatments complementing chemotherapy and surgery. It offers research grants to students, postdoctoral fellows, and investigators at medical research institutions, funds clinical trials testing promising immunotherapies, and convenes scientific conferences for tumor immunologists.[2]

History

The Institute was founded by Nauts and Grace as a way to advance studies of immunotherapies for cancer, and to fund early career researchers.[3][4] Its founding medical director was Lloyd Old, who was heading the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at Memorial Sloan Kettering.[5] For a few decades CRI was the only foundation dedicated to supporting studies of cancer immunotherapies.[6]

Since 1953, CRI has distributed over $500 million in grants, supporting over 3000 scientists.[7][8] As of 2024, it is led by CEO Alicia Zhou.[9] Its work is guided by a scientific advisory council that includes four Nobel laureates and 35 members of the National Academy of Sciences.[9][10]

In 2020, CRI collaborated with Sage Bionetworks to produce an interactive online atlas of research datasets in immuno-oncology.[11][12] In 2025, it funded a Mount Sinai immunotherapy lab to study outcomes across CRI's clinical trials.[13]

Awards

The Institute sponsors a number of annual awards in the field of cancer research,[14] and dozens of postdoctoral fellowships.[10] Awards are announced at the Institute's annual symposium.[15]

The William B. Coley Award, Lloyd J. Old Award, and Frederick W. Alt Award recognize scientists whose research has had a major impact on immunology. Other annual awards are the Oliver R. Grace Award and the Helen Coley Nauts Award.

References

  1. ^ Eno, Jessica (2017). "Immunotherapy Through the Years". Journal of the Advanced Practitioner in Oncology. 8 (7): 747–753. ISSN 2150-0878. PMC 6188092. PMID 30333937.
  2. ^ "The Ninth International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference (CICON25)". 2021-03-24. Retrieved 2026-02-05.
  3. ^ "Base Pairs Episode 15.5: Cellular hide and seek". Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Retrieved 2025-12-29.
  4. ^ "Helen Coley Nauts: The Woman Who Resurrected Cancer Immunotherapy". Cancer History Project. Retrieved 2025-12-29.
  5. ^ "The CRI Timeline". Cancer Research Institute. Retrieved 2026-02-05.
  6. ^ Wechsler, Caroline (September 2025). ""The Daughter of Immunotherapy": Helen Coley Nauts, Immuno-oncology, and the Gendered Work of Field Building". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. 114 (3): 133–162. doi:10.1353/tap.2025.a969680. ISSN 2325-9264.
  7. ^ Brandpoint (2018-12-17). "A history of cancer breakthroughs 65 years in the making". WTXL ABC 27 Tallahassee News. Retrieved 2025-12-29.
  8. ^ "Cancer Research Institute Awards Over $28 Million in Grants to Fuel Immunotherapy Innovations | Newswise". www.newswise.com. Retrieved 2026-02-05.
  9. ^ a b "Alicia Zhou as Chief Executive Officer of Cancer Research Institute: New era for CRI - OncoDaily". oncodaily.com. 2024-10-25. Retrieved 2025-12-29.
  10. ^ a b "Cancer Research Institute 2023 Annual Report" (PDF). Cancer Research. 2023. Retrieved 2025-12-28.
  11. ^ Eddy, James A.; Thorsson, Vésteinn; Lamb, Andrew E.; Gibbs, David L.; Heimann, Carolina; Yu, Jia Xin; Chung, Verena; Chae, Yooree; Dang, Kristen; Vincent, Benjamin G.; Shmulevich, Ilya; Guinney, Justin (2020). "CRI iAtlas: an interactive portal for immuno-oncology research". F1000Research. 9: 1028. doi:10.12688/f1000research.25141.1. ISSN 2046-1402. PMC 7658727. PMID 33214875.
  12. ^ "CRI iAtlas – an interactive portal for immuno-oncology research". CRI iAtlas. Retrieved 2025-12-29.
  13. ^ "Mount Sinai and Cancer Research Institute Team Up to Improve Patient Outcomes in Immunotherapy | Mount Sinai - New York". Mount Sinai Health System. Retrieved 2025-12-29.
  14. ^ "William B. Coley Award". Cancer Research Institute. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  15. ^ Tontonoz, Matthew; Gee, Connie E. (February 2014). "The Cancer Research Institute 2013 Annual Symposium: Dynamics of host-tumor interaction". Cancer Immunology Research. 2 (2): 105–111. doi:10.1158/2326-6066.CIR-13-0225. ISSN 2326-6074. PMID 24778274.


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