KCA Grants Over Half a Million in Research Funds a to Six Investigators
The Kidney Cancer Association (KCA) awarded over half a million dollars in research grants to six investigators pursuing high-impact kidney cancer research through the annual KCA Research Award Program and partnerships.
Each award supports early- to mid-career investigators researching topics that require greater attention and understanding across the kidney cancer community. The KCA distributed a total of $525,000 in research funds.
“We’re thrilled to support scientific discovery across the spectrum from bench to bedside,” said Dr. Salvatore La Rosa, KCA’s Chief Scientific Officer. “It’s important to continue to build our understanding of how kidney cancer evolves at the microscopic cellular level as well as determine how to best serve patients in treatment. Selecting recipients from a very competitive group of applicants was the best kind of challenge and this newest class of KCA researchers are poised to make a big impact for our field.”
The KCA partnered with several organizations with parallel missions to advance kidney cancer research to award four of the 2025 awards.
Together with Joey’s Wings Foundation, a KCA Affiliate Partner, the KCA granted a Pediatric Kidney Cancer Focus Award to advance translocation renal cell carcinoma (tRCC) research. Joey’s Wings founder Kathy Liu’s son Joey was diagnosed with stage IV tRCC in 2013 and died in 2014.
Dr. Ritesh Kotecha, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, received the Pediatric Kidney Cancer Focus Award. Kotecha previously received a 2020 KCA Research Award for biomarkers to help personalize RCC immunotherapy. His current project looks at genetically engineered personalized immunotherapy to treat tRCC.
“We’re excited to support this project, which will generate the essential preclinical data needed to advance this GPNMB-targeted CAR T-cell therapy into clinical trials for tRCC patients,” Liu said. “The approach of targeting a surface protein that is directly upregulated by a foundational cancer-driving fusion (TFE3) is a powerful paradigm. If successful, this same logic can be applied to many other cancers defined by specific transcription factors or fusion proteins.”
Dr. Ken Batai, a scientist at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, received an Interdisciplinary Medicine Focus Award to investigate the longitudinal connection between obesity and kidney cancer survival. The KCA granted this award together with the Michael and Ina Korek Foundation.
“We are thrilled to co-fund Dr. Batai’s exciting translational research, which has clear potential for developing personalized lifestyle interventions, together with the KCA,” said Brian Korek and Alek Peterlin of the Korek Foundation. “The Korek Foundation is passionate about making an impact for patients and families and we hope this partnership leads to therapeutic discoveries that will provide improved outcomes for kidney cancer patients.”
In a new partnership with Kure It Cancer Research, Dr. Miguel Zugman of City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer received a Trailblazer Award for a phase 1 clinical trial exploring how bacteria in the gut might boost how effective immunotherapy can be in people with advanced RCC.
“Kure It Cancer Research is proud to partner with the KCA to fund promising researchers of tomorrow,” said Julie Alai, Chairman of Kure It, whose mission supports research on underfunded cancers. “Our founder, Barry Hoeven, sadly passed away from kidney cancer almost a decade ago. We are proud to carry on his vision of one day eradicating the disease.”
Two additional Trailblazer Awards were granted to Dr. Katherine Alexander of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory for ways to predict RCC treatment response based on material in a cell’s nucleus and to Dr. Niki Zacharias Millward of MD Anderson Cancer Center for investigating the genetics of chromophobe RCC, a rare type of kidney cancer. Dr. Millward is a 2023 KCA Research Award recipient for research on chromophobe RCC.
In addition to KCA’s Research Award Program, Sidi Chen, PhD, was named the 2025 KCA/Cancer Research Institute (CRI) Clinic and Laboratory Integration Program (CLIP) Investigator to research how CAR-T cell therapy could be better used in solid tumors like kidney cancer, where thus far this innovative technique of modifying the body’s own immune system to target and destroy cancer cells has been less successful.
KCA partnered with the CRI on this unique CLIP grant that provides investigators with $300,000 over two years.
“What unites these investigators is a shared commitment to overcoming immunotherapy resistance and delivering more effective, precise treatment options to patients who urgently need them, said Dr. Alicia Zhou, CEO of the CRI in a company letter. “We’re proud to support their work and deeply grateful to the donors and partners, in particular the… Kidney Cancer Association, who make this progress possible.”
“Now, more than ever, we are proud to continue supporting investigators who are passionate about improving lives for patients and families with kidney cancer, and very grateful to our generous community who joins in our commitment to do so,” said Gretchen E. Vaughan, KCA’s President and CEO. “I’m exceptionally excited by our newest cohort of award winners. Their research will have rapid, positive impacts on the field and clinical care and, together, we hope to continue working for breakthroughs that bring hope.”
The KCA’s Research Award Program will open again for applications in spring 2026.
Trailblazer Award ($75,000)
Katherine Alexander, PhD – Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Nuclear Speckles as Prognostic and Predictive Indicators in ccRCC
Trailblazer Award ($75,000)
Niki Zacharias Millward, PhD – MD Anderson Cancer Center
Interrogating the Role of TRIP13 in Sarcomatoid Chromophobe Renal Cell Carcinoma
Pediatric Kidney Cancer Focus Award in partnership with Joey’s Wings Foundation ($75,000)
Ritesh Kotecha, MD – Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
GPNMB-CAR T Cell Therapy for Translocation Renal Cell Carcinoma
Interdisciplinary Medicine Focus Award in partnership with the Michael and Ina Korek Foundation ($75,000)
Ken Batai, PhD – Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
Investigation of relationship between weight history and abdominal adiposity and their influence on survival
Trailblazer Award in partnership with Kure It Cancer Research ($75,000)
Miguel Zugman, MD – City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center
Stool microbiome assessment in a randomized phase I trial of nivolumab and ipilimumab with or without EXL01 in the first-line treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC)
Kidney Cancer Association-Cancer Research Institute Clinic and Laboratory Integration Program Investigator ($150,000)
Sidi Chen, PhD – Yale Cancer Center
Initial development of a CAR-T-drug conjugate against solid tumor and application in kidney cancer
About the Kidney Cancer Association
The Kidney Cancer Association is a global community dedicated to serving and empowering patients and caregivers, and leading change through advocacy, research, and education in order to be the universal leader in finding the cure for kidney cancer. Founded in 1990 by Eugene P. Schonfeld and a small group of patients and doctors in Chicago, Illinois, the KCA has grown into an international non-profit organization based in Houston, Texas. The KCA promotes scientific advances through two annual research symposiums and a robust grant program, participates in legislative advocacy, and seeks to be a source of education and resources for patients, caregivers, and anyone impacted by kidney cancer.
Media Contact
Radha Chitale
Senior Director of Communications
847-332-5573 | rchitale@www.kidneycancer.org