Siteman Investment Program Funds 13 of the Most Promising Ideas in Cancer Research
Wednesday, February 18, 2026
A total of 16 research scientists and physicians received support from the Siteman Investment Program (SIP). SIP is a biannual research grant program at Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and WashU Medicine. These individuals are leading unique cancer research projects that advance patient care through innovation.
SIP awarded $2.44 million to individuals leading 13 projects with funding support from a variety of sources, including nearly $1.66 million from the Cancer Frontier Fund and other cancer research funds at The Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital. The Cancer Frontier Fund includes gifts from generous donors made throughout the year and through the Foundation’s annual Illumination Gala and Pedal the Cause’s annual bike challenge.
Early-stage funding, like that of SIP, often determines the ability, success, and rate at which scientific discoveries can progress from early ideas to patient care and treatment. For every dollar of philanthropic support, SIP grant recipients leverage an additional $14 from national funding to expand and accelerate their research.
A testament to this investment approach is Stephanie Markovina, MD, PhD, a WashU Medicine radiation oncologist at Siteman, who received a 2024 SIP award and two subsequent National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants. Her project focused on developing drugs that target a specific protein with immunotherapy to decrease cervical cancer growth.
Dr. Markovina's research also presented opportunities to safely and effectively rearrange and reuse parts of standard therapies and treatments to reduce office visits for patients in her clinical trial and, thus, create less interruption in their lives while they advance science. While it may take longer for a specific discovery to become mainstream, Dr. Markovina says patients around the world can receive care more quickly and efficiently through small incremental changes such as reusing imaging and blood tests patients are already receiving as standard care.
“This is really the reason to invest in high-risk, high-reward research,” Dr. Markovina said at a 2025 Foundation event about SIP’s return on investment in her project.
The highly competitive, peer-reviewed SIP awards seek to fund cancer research that allows physicians to predict, prevent, diagnose, or treat cancer. SIP prioritizes projects that have excellent potential but need additional data to compete for NIH and National Cancer Institute funding. For over 15 years, the Cancer Frontier Fund has supported more than 210 research scientists and physicians, like Dr. Markovina, in advancing their pioneering cancer research to promote exceptional patient care.
The most recent SIP recipients are listed below. For a full description of their projects, visit Siteman Cancer Center.
February 2026 Awards
Giordano Cittolin Santos, MD, PhD; Daniel Morgensztern, MD
A Phase II, Single-Center, Open-Label Study of First-Line Ipilimumab plus Nivolumab and Nogapendekin Alfa Inbakicept (N-803) in Patients with Stage IV or Recurrent Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (FLINN)
Michael Slade, MD, MSCI
A Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Phase lb Study Evaluating the Safety and Toxicity of Recombinant Human IL-7 (NT-I7) in Relapsed/Refractory Multiple Myeloma Following BCMA CAR-T Therapy (Cilta-cel)
Maxim Artyomov, PhD
Metabolic Control of Antigen Presentation in aCD40 Cancer Immunotherapy
Francesca Ferraro, MD, PhD
Defining and Targeting the Non-Transcriptional Functions of MYC in Acute Myeloid Leukemia
Jennifer Foltz, PhD
The Role of Endogenous Memory NK Cells in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
Charles Kaufman, MD, PhD
A Novel Targeted Treatment Combination for BRAF Mutant Melanoma
Yongjian Liu, PhD
Tumor-Associated Macrophage Modulated Radioimmunotherapy of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma
MaryMullen, MD, MSCI
Targeting COPS5 to Overcome PARP Inhibitor Resistance in Ovarian Cancer
Patricia Ribeiro Pereira, PhD
Predicting Response of HER2-low Breast Tumors to Trastuzumab-Deruxtecan Through Quantitative Imaging
Buck Rogers, PhD
Targeted Radionuclide Therapy for Cervical Cancer
Monica Shokeen, PhD, MBA
Imaging, Phenotyping, and Molecular Targeting of CD38-Resistant Multiple Myeloma Cells
Jason Weber, PhD
Identifying a DHX9 Pathway Vulnerability in Triple Negative Breast Cancer
Jacqueline Payton, MD, PhD; Felicia Gomez, PhD; Erin Linnenbringer, PhD, MS
Leveraging Community Input for AI-based Applications for Cancer Patients and Caregivers