Robert Prins receives grant to research brain tumor treatments

Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on email
Share on print

Robert Prins, professor of neurosurgery and molecular and medical pharmacology in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, has been awarded a $750,000 grant to support research in developing immunotherapies for brain tumors.

The grant was sponsored by the Brain Tumor Funders’ Collaborative, a partnership between six private philanthropic and advocacy organizations dedicated to accelerating progress in brain tumor research by supporting research and collaborations.

While there have been many advancements in cancer treatments in the past 20 years, there has been limited treatment developments for people with malignant gliomas.

Prins, an immunologist in the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and member researcher with the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy Center at UCLA, and members of the UCLA Brain Tumor Center are finding new ways to treat this deadly brain tumor by studying immune-based therapies.

Researchers are studying a new combination therapy using checkpoint blockade in conjunction with a personalized dendritic cell vaccine, which was developed at UCLA, for people diagnosed with glioblastoma. Prins and his team hope by combining the two treatments they will be able to create a new way to treat people with brain cancer, as well as develop new ways to track the immune response.

Table of Contents

YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN

At the Sept. 4 meeting of the National Cancer Advisory Board, NCI Principal Deputy Director Douglas R. Lowy provided an overview of how NCI is weathering the maelstrom of executive orders, policy changes, and funding uncertainties that has come down on federal agencies and research institutes since Donald Trump’s inauguration in January. 
A Senate hearing that the administration hoped would be a routine check-in on the president’s 2026 MAHA-driven healthcare agenda erupted into a political firestorm as senators jumped at their first opportunity to confront HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over the chaos engulfing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In December 1971, President Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act and declared a “War on Cancer.” In the past 54 years, the U.S. has invested $180 billion nominally, or approximately $322 billion when adjusted for inflation, in cancer research. This investment has paid dividends with more than 100 anticancer drugs brought to market in half a century—virtually all traceable to National Cancer Institute funding. 

Never miss an issue!

Get alerts for our award-winning coverage in your inbox.

Login