The Discovery Grants Program 2025/2026 cycle is now closed.
Thank you for your submissions.
The Discovery Grant Program is a research award program aimed at supporting cutting edge, innovative research that is discovery oriented, concerned with understanding blood cancer properties and vulnerabilities and aimed toward advancing treatments for blood cancers.
This program is intended for established academic investigators for support of foundational, early stage research that can lead to advances in the treatment and cure of blood cancers.
This same mechanism currently supports grantees under the name "Blood Cancer Discoveries Grant Program (BCDG)".
Find out more about the Discovery application process or browse resources for current Discovery awardees below.
Our inaugural Discovery awards were sponsored through a partnership between Blood Cancer United, the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research and The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group.
Meet our very first Discovery grantees:
Robert Bradley, Ph.D.
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Dr. Bradley is investigating comprehensively the mutations in the SF3B1 protein and their connection with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and leukemias, and exploring this protein as a therapeutic target.
Robert Bradley, Ph.D., is a computational biologist and biophysicist who works at the intersection of several different disciplines, including cancer biology, cancer-immune interactions, and RNA processing. His broad goal is to discover novel molecular mechanisms that govern cancer initiation, progression or response to therapy. He is professor of Public Health Sciences Division and professor of Basic Sciences Division of Fred Hutch.
Catriona Jamieson, M.D., Ph.D.
University of California San Diego
Dr. Jamieson is examining the role of two enzymes (APOBEC3 and ADAR1) known to mutate DNA and RNA, and their role in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and disease relapse, particularly in elderly patients.
Dr. Jamieson is a leading physician-scientist in the cancer stem cell biology field. She is a professor of medicine, the Koman Family Presidential Endowed Chair in Cancer Research, deputy director of the Moores Cancer Center and the director of the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). Dr. Jamieson is the director of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) Alpha Stem Cell Clinic at UCSD, which provides infrastructure to accelerate the bench to bedside development and implementation of cancer stem cell targeted and cellular immunotherapy trials for hematologic and other malignancies. Her discoveries and pioneering cancer stem cell research have informed the development of cancer stem cell targeted therapies, including JAK2 and sonic hedgehog pathway inhibitor trials, which resulted in two FDA approvals for myeloproliferative neoplasms and leukemia.
Robert Signer, Ph.D.
University of California San Diego
Dr. Signer is investigating how the process of building defective proteins (inaccurate protein synthesis) plays a role in the development of a type of blood cancer called acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in the hopes of developing targeted therapies to treat this condition.
Robert Signer, Ph.D., is a stem cell biologist whose trailblazing work on protein synthesis opened the door to uncharted areas of cellular investigation. Dr. Signer is currently an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Regenerative Medicine at the University of California San Diego. His laboratory, located in Moores Cancer Center, investigates how cell-type specific differences in protein homeostasis regulate blood-forming and leukemia stem cells.
Ronald (Ron) Levy, M.D.
Stanford University School of Medicine
Dr. Levy is investigating a pre-clinical “off-the-shelf” CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T-cell immunotherapy approach where the CAR cells are generated directly in the patient’s body.
Dr. Levy is the Robert K. Summy and Helen K. Summy Professor of Medicine and director of the Lymphoma Program at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is also the associate director of translational science for the Stanford Cancer Institute. For more than 25 years his research has focused on monoclonal antibodies and the study of malignant lymphoma, currently using the tools of immunology and molecular biology to develop a better understanding of the initiation and progression of the malignant process. He was the first to successfully treat cancer with a monoclonal antibody, and went on to help develop rituximab (Rituxan®) for the treatment of patients diagnosed with lymphomas. He is using lymphocyte receptors as targets for new therapies for lymphoma, and he is currently conducting clinical trials of in situ therapeutic vaccination. Dr. Levy is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Ravindra (Ravi) Majeti, M.D., Ph.D.
Stanford University School of Medicine
Dr. Majeti is generating cell-based models to test the progression of preleukemic cells into acute myeloid leukemia (AML). His lab will use these models to test potential therapies and the role of the microenvironment in disease progression.
Dr. Majeti is Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Division of Hematology, and Member of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He is a board-certified hematologist. While at Stanford, he completed post-doctoral training in the laboratory of Irving Weissman, MD, where he investigated acute myeloid leukemia (AML) stem cells and therapeutic targeting with anti-CD47 antibodies. Dr. Majeti directs an active NIH-funded laboratory that focuses on the molecular characterization and therapeutic targeting of leukemia stem cells in human hematologic disorders, particularly AML, and has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles.
Markus Müschen, M.D., Ph.D.
Yale School of Medicine
Dr. Müschen studies mechanisms of tumor-initiation in B-cell malignancies, including acute lymphoblastic leukemia, mantle cell lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. These studies focus on negative regulators of the WNT/b-catenin pathway as potential diagnostic marker and therapeutic target.
Dr. Müschen is the Arthur H. and Isabel Bunker Professor of Medicine and was appointed Director of the Center of Molecular and Cellular Oncology at the Yale Cancer Center in 2020. Over the past 10 years, the Müschen laboratory has developed a multidisciplinary research program to study oncogenic signaling and clonal evolution in B cell malignancies, including acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most frequent type of cancer in children and young adults. His group has developed a comprehensive research program to predict relapse of ALL and other B cell-derived lymphoid malignancies, including mantle cell lymphoma and B-CLL. As principal investigator of the NCI’s Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program “preclinical drug-testing” project, he developed a testing platform with clinical, phenotypic and genetic annotation.
Susan R. Schwab, Ph.D.
NYU Langone
Dr. Schwab is examining the mechanism of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) cells that allow them to enter and accumulate in the central nervous system when the disease spreads to the brain.
Immunologist Susan Schwab, PhD, is an associate professor at New York University Grossman School of Medicine. Schwab studies how normal immune cells migrate through the body to find and fight infection, and how leukemia cells hijack these pathways to invade healthy tissues. Recently, she has reported on techniques to stop leukemia without damaging the body’s underlying immune system defenses.
Daniel T. Starczynowski, Ph.D.
Cincinnati Children's Research Foundation
Dr. Starczynowski is investigating the role and potential benefit of therapeutic targeting of a protein called UBE2N in acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
Daniel T. Starczynowski, Ph.D leads a laboratory at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital focused on the intersection of inflammation, innate immune signaling, and hematologic malignancies, with an emphasis on myelodysplastic syndromes and acute myeloid leukemia. Dr. Starczynowski is currently the Katherine Stewart Waters Endowed Chair in Hematologic Malignancies, professor in Pediatrics, and co-leader of the Hematologic Malignancies Program at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.
Margaret A. Shipp, M.D.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/ Harvard Medical School
Dr. Shipp and her colleague, Scott J. Rodig, MD, Ph.D., are mapping the immune microenvironment in classical Hodgkin lymphoma.
Margaret Shipp, MD, is Chief of the Division of Hematologic Neoplasia at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Director of the Lymphoma Research Center at Dana-Farber, and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on the clinical and molecular heterogeneity of the large B-cell lymphomas (LBCLs) and Hodgkin lymphomas. Dr. Shipp has led efforts to define molecular signatures of LBCLs and Hodgkin lymphomas, identify biologically distinct subsets of these diseases, and characterize associated rational treatment targets including modulators of the host anti-tumor immune response.
Please submit a Letter of Intent.
Blood Cancer United is proud to announce the Discovery Grant Program (DGP): a research award program designed to encourage basic research, technological innovation, and informatics pipeline development that can lead to an understanding of blood cancer disease mechanisms, the development of improved methods for detecting and monitoring cancer progression, and the identification of novel therapeutic targets. This is a dedicated mechanism to encourage established investigators to explore the biology of blood cancer and support proof-of-concept studies that could initiate completely novel approaches to treatment.
This same mechanism is currently also known as the "Blood Cancer Discoveries Grant Program (BCDG)".
See our active Discovery portfolio.
Please find all Discovery program documents available for download:
2025 DGP Guidelines and Instructions (PDF)
DGP Funding Agreement Template – FY25 (PDF)
Changes
- If you currently hold a Discovery Grant Program (DGP) or Blood Cancer Discoveries Grant Program (BCDG) award, you may not apply to DGP in this cycle.
- The Blood Cancer Discoveries Grant Program (BCDG) is now simply called Discovery Grant Program (DGP). This name change will only affect grantees activated after October 1, 2023
- The applicant (PI) must be an established investigator, defined as a researcher with more than 3 years in an independent faculty appointment at the time of submitting the Letter of Intent
Examples of projects of potential interest
- cellular activities that underlie the behavior and vulnerabilities of blood cancer cells including phenomena or processes such as clonal evolution, autophagy, unique metabolic vulnerabilities, inflammation/inflammasomes, DNA damage responses, organellar changes, and poorly understood cellular regulatory mechanisms
- resistance mechanisms including immune evasion, resistant clone evolution and cellular changes underlying development of resistance to chemotherapies
- novel biomarkers or techniques to detect and monitor blood cancer development and progression
- discovery of neoantigens, including those that may reside outside of coding regions
- blood cancer cell interactions with the microenvironment and with the immune system, including exploration of novel immune synapses
This program is not meant to support
- clinical trials or correlative studies associated with clinical trials
- development of a drug or treatment that already has shown proof of concept
- research that is primarily confirmatory or minimally incremental
- research into cellular behavior, mechanisms or development not in the context of blood cancer
- studies of normal hematopoiesis
Award
- Budget submitted should reflect the actual needs of the project but cannot exceed $250,000 USD per year / $750,000 USD total for the three (3) years of the grant.
- This budget ceiling includes all costs associated with the grant including indirect costs (often referred to as Institutional Overhead), which will be capped at 10% of the total award.
How to apply
- Please refer to the Guidelines & Instructions document above
- Is this your first time applying for an Blood Cancer United Research grant? You can get started by requesting a new account (PDF) in the Blood Cancer United Research Portal.
- Applicants must carefully read the program guidelines before beginning their applications.
- See the table below for all the key dates and deadlines:
2025-2026 Application Key Dates
| Phase | Date |
|---|---|
| Call for Proposals: | June 30, 2025 |
| Letter of Intent Due: | August 19, 2025, 3:00 PM (ET) |
| Notification of Full Application Invite: | Late September |
| Full Application Deadline: | November 19, 2025, 3:00 PM (ET) |
| Notification of Awards: | April 2026 |
| Award Start Date: | July 1, 2026 |
Do you have any questions?
Please refer to the downloadable Guidelines and Instructions document above for answers and for contact information.
Get information about other programs and about applying for Blood Cancer United research funding.
Grant requirements
Reporting schedule: Progress, IP Disclosure, and Financial Reports are required for each year of the grant, and Publications Reports are required each quarter. Below is an example of a typical schedule for a new BCDG grant starting on July 1, 2020.
| Example Reporting Schedule for New BCDG Grant 2020* | |
|---|---|
| Publications Report #1 | October 1, 2020 |
| Publications Report #2 | January 1, 2021 |
| Interim Year 1 Progress Report Interim Year 1 IP Disclosure Report Interim Year 1 Financial Report | Sept 1, 2021 |
| Publications Report #3 | July 1, 2021 |
| Publications Report #4 | October 1, 2021 |
| Publications Report #5 | January 1, 2022 |
| Publications Report #6 | April 1, 2022 |
| Interim Year 2 Progress Report Interim Year 2 IP Disclosure Report Interim Year 2 Financial Report | Sept 1, 2022 |
| Publications Report #8 | July 1, 2022 |
| Publications Report #9 | October 1, 2022 |
| Publications Report #10 | January 1, 2023 |
| Publications Report #11 | April 1, 2023 |
| Final Progress Report Final IP Disclosure Report Final Financial Report | Sept 1, 2023 |
*Note: Because of the COVID-19 health emergency, the 2020 activation of BCDG projects was moved from April 1 to July 1. The Grant Agreements for these projects reflect the reporting schedule that was originally planned with the April 1 activation date. The updated reporting schedule is shown above and available under "Reports Due" in the Blood Cancer United Research Portal at https://lls.fluxx.io.
The reporting schedule may also be altered upon the approval of a leave of absence or no-cost extension request. Always defer to the schedule available under "Reports Due" in the Blood Cancer United Research Portal (FLUXX); this is kept updated with the dates specific to each project.
Report Submission: Blood Cancer United research grant reporting is conducted through the Blood Cancer United Research Portal (FLUXX). Access this portal using the same username and password that were used during the application process.
Individuals responsible for submitting reports must be manually added to each grant in our system in order for them to have reporting access. Contact [email protected] to update reporting access for your grant.
Progress Reports and Publications Reports should be submitted by the researcher (the PI). Financial Reports should be submitted by the financial officer, and IP Disclosure Reports should be submitted by the technology/transfer officer.
Researchers and administrators should be careful to follow all instructions on the report web form and downloadable template. Reports that fail to follow instructions will be returned for revision, which may delay grant payment. Do not save templates for future use the templates are subject to change and therefore must be newly downloaded for each submission.
Download the Report Submission Guide (PDF)
Download the Report Submission Guide for detailed instructions on submitting a report in the Cancer United Research Portal (FLUXX).
Note: FLUXX recently updated the grantee portal view, so the pages will visually be different from the screenshots shown in this guide. This change is aesthetic only; the process for submitting reports remains unchanged.
Grant payment
Blood Cancer United pays research grants quarterly in March, June, September, and December. Payments are contingent upon reporting requirements; all report approvals must be up to date in order for payment to be processed. A list of sent payments can be viewed in the Blood Cancer United Research Portal (FLUXX) under Dispersed Payments.
Transfers
Blood Cancer United approval is required at least 30 days prior to an award's transfer to a new institution or laboratory. In order to submit a request for transfer, complete a Special Requests report in the Blood Cancer United Research Portal (FLUXX). Your request will be reviewed, and you will receive a notification from Blood Cancer United with the results of the review or with a request for more information. Approval is contingent upon continued research support and sponsorship, fitness of the new research environment, and circumstances of your award type and timing of the request (see your Grant Agreement for more details).
Transfer to another investigator may be allowed if the original grantee is unable to continue the project (e.g. if they move to a new institution unequipped for the project). Contact [email protected] to inquire about a grantee transfer.
Leaves of absence
Blood Cancer United approval is required at least 30 days prior to the interruption of an award. Leaves of absence may not exceed 1 year in duration. In order to submit a request for leave of absence, complete a Special Requests report in the Blood Cancer United Research Portal (FLUXX). If the request is approved, funding of the award will be suspended during the leave period, and the grant term will be extended for a period equal to the duration of the suspension (e.g. following an approved 1-year leave of absence, an award originally scheduled to end 6/30/2022 will end 6/30/2023).
No-cost extensions
Grantees are permitted to request a no-cost extension for a maximum of one year in duration. At the end of the no-cost extension period, any funds remaining must be returned to Blood Cancer United. To request a no-cost extension, complete a Special Requests report in the Blood Cancer United Research Portal (FLUXX). If the request is approved, the grant period will be extended for the amount of time requested, and final reports will be due 60 days following the new end date. The final payment will be paid once final reports are received and approved by Blood Cancer United.
If you have questions regarding your grant that are not addressed here, please contact the Research Administration Team at [email protected].