In October 2025, the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) announced the launch of our new funding program, the IGNITE Award — Inspiring Growth and Nurturing Independence Through Excellence — a bold new initiative designed to close a critical funding gap for early-career scientists in cancer immunology and immunotherapy.
The IGNITE Award provides up to five years of support, including two years of mentored postdoctoral funding, followed by three years of independent faculty support.
Early-career scientists are facing unprecedented headwinds: fewer jobs, tighter institutional budgets, and shrinking federal support. “If we don’t protect this next generation of researchers, we risk losing the very people who will drive the discoveries of tomorrow,” said E. John Wherry, PhD, an associate director of CRI’s Scientific Advisory Council and co-chair of the IGNITE Award selection committee. “IGNITE fills this gap and ensures that the best and brightest can thrive.”
“We really needed a new mechanism to give a transition for these very talented postdoctoral scholars who are then looking to go the next step and create their own lab,” said Lewis Lanier, PhD, a member of CRI’s Scientific Advisory Council and co-chair of the IGNITE Award selection committee. “It’s very difficult to get money from NIH at the moment, and we didn’t want to lose out on the best and brightest young scientists.”
We are thrilled to announce our inaugural class of IGNITE fellows. These nine extraordinary young researchers span nine different institutions, with projects focused on seven distinct cancer types.
“CRI has always invested in people whose discoveries redefine what is possible in cancer treatment,” said Alicia Zhou, PhD, CEO of CRI. “Through IGNITE, we’re ensuring the next generation of scientists can stay in the field and lead the future of immunotherapy.”
Meet the inaugural class of IGNITE fellows! Nine early-career researchers navigating the transition from postdoctoral research to independent faculty.
Meet the 2026 IGNITE Fellows
- Amin Aalipour, MD, PhD | Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
A modular platform for reprogramming cytokine signaling in cellular immunotherapies - Adam Blaisdell, MD, PhD | University of California, San Francisco
Enhancing perforin-dependent anti-tumor immunity by exhausted CD8 T cells - Chin San Loo, PhD | Harvard Medical School
Reprogrammed T cells for sensing GPCR-ligand engagement and enhancing anti-tumor immunity - Luiz Henrique Medeiros Geraldo, MD, PhD | NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Targeting immune niches and meningeal lymphatics to unleash CNS anti-tumor immunity - Simone Park, PhD | University of Pennsylvania
Defining and exploiting regulators of functional tissue-resident CD8+ T cell fate to enhance anti-tumor immunity - James Swann, VetMB, DPhil | Columbia University
Role of YBX1 in myeloid-derived suppressor cell emergence and function - Shayna Thomas-Jardin, PhD | University of Texas Southwestern
The regulation and function of uORFs during integrated stress response activation in cancer - Yahui Wang, PhD | Johns Hopkins University
Fasting-refeeding cycles enhance anti-tumor immunity - Pu Zhang, PhD | Memorial Sloan Ketting Cancer Center
Targeting public RNA splicing-derived neoantigens with single-chain TCR-T therapy
