Kelly Shanahan, M.D.
METAvivor President and Director of Research
METAvivor’s core mission is to fund research that will benefit those of us whose cancer has already metastasized. We are the only US based non-profit that awards scientist AND patient reviewed research grants exclusively for MBC-focused projects.
Our grant process is rigorous. Every January or early February we post a request for proposals (RFP) for at least two different grant categories: early career investigator and translational awards. The early career awards, as the name suggests, are geared towards those who are in the early years of their careers – within 10 years of getting their PhD, MD/DO, DVM, or equivalent advanced degree and within 6 years of their first faculty appointment. These $200,000 given over 2 years awards can often encourage these young investigators to continue a career in metastasis research. The other category we always fund are translational awards of $450,000 given over 3 years; this encompasses work that is closer to being moved into human trials, or may even be a component of a clinical trial. Sometimes we’ll have an additional category. For example, in 2024 we awarded a $50,000 exploratory grant – just enough money to start looking at an idea and gathering some preliminary data to parlay into future, bigger grants. This year, for the first time, we have a quality of life/side effect mitigation award, because while new drugs may be helping us live longer, they come at a cost of soul-sucking side effects.
Once the RFP is published, interested researchers submit a letter of intent (LOI), which is a 1 page document telling what they’d like to investigate and some bare bones on how they plan to do it. These LOIs are reviewed by at least 2 scientists and at least 1 patient advocate reviewer (PAR). The highest scoring, most interesting LOIs are then invited to submit a comprehensive, multipage, multicategory full application, which again are reviewed by scientists and PARs. The scores are tabulated and ranked from best to worst by a scientific review officer (a PhD who is experienced in grant review who we contract to do this work). Finally, our scientific advisory board (SAB), currently comprised of 3 PhD career metastasis researchers (Drs Danny Welch, Stuart Martin, and Jill Bargonetti) and 1 oncologist with a special interest in supportive care (Dr Maryam Lustberg), review the ranked lists and discuss them in what is called a study section; I also participate in this, to provide the patient perspective. The SAB’s recommendations of what to fund (and what to fund if we have enough money) are sent to the board of directors for approval.
Historically, over the past several years, we have gotten approximately 100 LOIs. This year, we got a whopping 195!!!! This is likely due to the cuts in federal dollars for research and all the uncertainties in the NIH/NCI. While having so many choices is wonderful, I literally lay awake at night wondering how we are going to be able to raise enough money to fund more research. Every year, how many grants we can fund depends on how much money we raise – and how much money we raise depends on you, our supporters! You can donate here. We also can’t do the grant review without you, so if you are interested in being a PAR, email me at [email protected]!
Kelly
