KCA Awards Program

Transforming Kidney Cancer Research

The Kidney Cancer Association has a long tradition of funding innovation in medical research. Since 1995, our research awards have advanced critical studies in immunotherapy, helped identify new mechanisms for tumor suppression, and shed light on rare forms of kidney cancer. Early funding propelled many talented researchers to become key opinion leaders in the field today. These achievements have cemented the KCA’s commitment to supporting groundbreaking research that benefits patients and families impacted by kidney cancer. Hear from more KCA Award recipients.

Award Categories:

Trailblazer Awards

$75,000

Any focus in kidney cancer accepted.

Focus Awards

$75,000

Specific research focus required.

2025 Awards:

Trailblazer Awards – $75,000
Any focus in kidney cancer accepted

Pediatric Kidney Cancer Focus Awards – $75,000
In partnership with Joey’s Wings Foundation
Required Focus: Pediatric kidney cancer, specifically translocation RCC in the following ways:

Comparative Analysis of Pediatric and Adult tRCC
- Develop methodologies to compare clinical and pathological characteristics of pediatric and adult tRCC.
- Investigate shared and distinct biological features and therapeutic responses between pediatric and adult tumors.
Characterization of Fusion Targets in Pediatric tRCC Models
- Evaluate the robustness and reproducibility of existing pediatric tRCC models and propose strategies for model improvement.
- Explore the functional implications of distinct fusion events on disease biology in pediatric cases.
Therapeutic Target Identification and Validation for Pediatric tRCC
- Perform focused drug screenings in patient-derived or engineered cell lines relevant to pediatric tRCC to identify new therapeutic vulnerabilities.
- Validate potential targets using robust in vitro and in vivo pediatric models.

Interdisciplinary Medicine Focus Awards – $75,000
In partnership with the Michael and Ina Korek Foundation
Required Focus: Explore the relationship between kidney cancer and various lifestyle factors. This includes, but is not limited to, nutrition, the gut microbiome, dietary habits, and physical activity. Proposals should aim to identify modifiable risk factors and develop preventive strategies or interventions that can be rapidly applied in clinical settings to aid in treatment or outcomes.

Additional Collaborative Funding Opportunities:

Cancer Research Institute

American Brain Tumor Association

The KCA’s 2025 Award Program is open.

APPLY NOW!

Applications due by: April 21, 2025

Award recipients will be notified: Summer 2025

Eligibility, submission guidelines, review process and additional information are available through the grant submission portal.

Submit questions to [email protected]

Year	Award	Recipient	Institution	Project Title	Further Reading
2024	Trailblazer Award	Dr. Laura Bukavina	Cleveland Clinic Foundation	Assessing the presence and impact of micro- and nanoplastics role in renal cell carcinoma
2024	Trailblazer Award	Dr. Angela Cappello	University of Bari	Drugs resistance mechanisms guided by amino acids catabolism in ccRCC
2024	Trailblazer Award	Dr. Mitchell Thomas Hayes	H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Reasearch Institute	Tracing the seeds of progression: spatial transcriptomic analysis of immunoresistant kidney cancer
2024	Trailblazer Award	Dr. Yuexin Xu	Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center	Characterization of tumor-endothelial STAB1 mediated Treg recruitment into renal cancer carcinoma
2024	Chromophobe RCC Focus Award	Dr. Elizabeth Ellis	University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center	Evaluating the response of chromophobe renal cell carcinoma to novel targeted metabolic therapies
2024	Trailblazer Award	Dr. Kaushal Asrani	Johns Hopkins University	Therapeutic Targeting of EGFR and HER2 in Translocation Renal Cell Carcinoma
2023	Trailblazer Award	Dr. Shinji Otake	University of California, Los Angeles	Development of Models of NF2 Loss in Papillary and Unclassified Variant of Kidney Cancer	Q&A
2023	Trailblazer Award	Dr. Niki Zacharias Millward	University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center	Leveraging Patient-Derived Xenograft Models to Identify and Therapeutically Target Metabolic Hallmarks of Chromophobe Renal Cell Carcinoma	Video Q&A
2023	Trailblazer Award	Dr. Rana McKay	University of California, San Diego	Dissecting Predictors of Response to Immunotheraphy in Patients with Renal Cell Carcinoma
2023	Trailblazer Award	Dr. Prateek Khanna	Dana-Farber Cancer Institute	Therapeutic Targeting of Cell Surface Antigens in Translocation Renal Cell Carcinoma
2023	Trailblazer Award	Dr. Brendan Guercio	University of California, San Diego	Associations of diet with the gut microbiome among patients with advanced/metastatic renal cell cancer (mRCC) receiving immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI)
2023	Trailblazer Award	Dr. Marie Carlo	Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center	Role of Germline and Somatic Variants in NRF2 Pathway Genes in Renal Cell Carcinoma	Video Q&A
2022	Psychosocial Focus Award	Dr. Erin Tagai	Fox Chase Cancer Center	Improving Patient-Reported Outcomes for Renal Cancer Patients on Active Surveillance
2022	Trailblazer Award	Dr. Yufei Wang	Dana-Farber Cancer Institute	Design of CAIX Targeted Fine-Tuned Immune Restoring Safe (FIS) CAR-T Cell Therapy for Metastatic Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma (mccRCC)
2022	Trailblazer Award	Dr. Srinivasan Viswanathan	Dana-Farber Cancer Institute	Advancing a Cell Surface Therapeutic Target in Translocation Renal Cell Carcinoma	Video Q&A
2022	Trailblazer Award	Dr. Pooja Ghatalia	Fox Chase Cancer Center	Comparison of Immune Microenvironment between Patients of African and European Ancestry with Renal Cell Carcinoma
2022	Trailblazer Award	Dr. Nazli Dizman	Yale School of Medicine	Impact of CBM588 on metabolomic profile in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC)
2022	Trailblazer Award	Dr. David Braun	Yale School of Medicine	Dissecting the immunobiology of chromophobe renal cell carcinoma using single-cell transcriptomics	Video Q&A
2021	Advanced Discovery Award	Dr. Pavlos Msaouel	The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center	Identification of Tumor Frameshift Neoantigens to Accurately Predict Response to Immune Checkpoint Therapy in Renal Cell Carcinoma	Video Q&A
2021	Advanced Discovery Award	Dr. Jianjun Gao	The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center	Identification of Tumor Frameshift Neoantigens to Accurately Predict Response to Immune Checkpoint Therapy in Renal Cell Carcinoma
2021	Advanced Discovery Award	Dr. Toni Choueiri	Dana-Farber Cancer Institute	Adoptive cytokine-induced memory-like NK cell therapy alone or in combination with avelumab for immunotherapy-refractory advanced renal cell carcinoma
2021	Advanced Discovery Award	Dr. Rizwan Romee	Dana-Farber Cancer Institute	Adoptive cytokine-induced memory-like NK cell therapy alone or in combination with avelumab for immunotherapy-refractory advanced renal cell carcinoma
2021	Psychosocial Focus Award	Dr. Christiane Bergerot	Instituto Unity de Ensino e Pesquisa, Centro De Cancer De Brasilia	Redefining Quality of Life Assessments in Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma	Q&A Publication: Journal of Clinical Oncology
2021	Young Investigator Award	Dr. Yuexin Xu	Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center	Transcriptomic single-cell and spatial mapping of immune cell infiltration and tumor-associated endothelial cell heterogeneity in renal cell carcinoma
2021	Young Investigator Award	Dr. Nirmish Singla	Johns Hopkins University	Tumor Evolution of Brain-Specific Tropism in Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma
2021	Young Investigator Award	Dr. Eric C. Kauffman	Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center	Impact of CBM588 on metabolomic profile in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC)
2021	Young Investigator Award	Dr. Elshad Hasanov	The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center	Investigating genomic drivers of immune checkpoint inhibitors resistance in RCC brain metastasis: implications for immunotherapy	Video Q&A
2020	Advanced Discovery Award	Dr. Brian Shuch	University of California, Los Angeles	Targeting asparagine dependence in renal cell cancer	Q&A
2020	Advanced Discovery Award	Dr. Heather Christofk	University of California, Los Angeles	Targeting asparagine dependence in renal cell cancer	Q&A
2020	Young Investigator Award	Dr. Ritesh R. Kotecha	Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center	HLA Evolutionary Diversity – A Population Specific Biomarker for Kidney Cancer Immunotherapy	Video Q&A
2020	Young Investigator Award	Dr. Frank M. Mason	Vanderbilt University Medical Center	Therapeutic Vulnerability of SETD2 mutant RCC	Video Q&A
2020	Young Investigator Award	Dr. Brandon Manley	H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institutue, Inc	Investigation of the Aberrant Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Splicing Proteome to Determine Drug Repurposing Strategies for ccRCC	Video Q&A
2020	Young Investigator Award	Dr. Chiara Di Malta	Telethon Institute of Genetic and Medicine, Pozzuoli, Italy	Exploiting the potential of MiT/TFE factors inhibition to treat inherited kidney cancers
2019	Advanced Discovery Award	Dr. Eric Jonasch	The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center	S-phase DNA damage response links genomic instability mechanisms to anti-tumor immunity in renal cell carcinoma	Q&A Video Q&A
2019	Advanced Discovery Award	Dr. Guang Peng	The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center	S-phase DNA damage response links genomic instability mechanisms to anti-tumor immunity in renal cell carcinoma	Q&A
2019	Advanced Discovery Award	Dr. Rupal S. Bhatt	Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center	HHLA2/KIR3DL3 as a novel therapeutic immune checkpoint pathway in renal cancer
2019	Advanced Discovery Award	Dr. Gordon J. Freeman	Dana-Farber Cancer Institute	HHLA2/KIR3DL3 as a novel therapeutic immune checkpoint pathway in renal cancer
2019	Advanced Discovery Award	Dr. Kathleen M. Mahoney	Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center	HHLA2/KIR3DL3 as a novel therapeutic immune checkpoint pathway in renal cancer
2019	Young Investigator Award	Dr. Tian Zhang	Duke Cancer Institute	Immune correlates of immunotherapy responses in renal cell carcinoma	Video Q&A
2019	Young Investigator Award	Dr. Ed Reznik	Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center	Metabolic determinants of the tumor microenvironment and sensitivity to immunotherapy in ccRCC
2019	Young Investigator Award	Dr. Akash Kumar Kaushik	University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center	In vivo glutamine metabolism in VHL and FH mutant renal cell carcinoma
2019	Young Investigator Award	Dr. Scott Haake	Vanderbilt University Medical Center	Endogenous retrovirus expression drives immunogenicity of papillary renal cell carcinoma	Video Q&A