Research Grants Program

The EHE Foundation aims to identify and support impactful research that expands our understanding of EHE and accelerates the development of treatments and a cure for EHE. The 2023 EHE Research Grants funding cycle is officially open. We invite researchers to submit an application and join in our commitment to promote collaboration, information, and resource sharing among the EHE community including patients, clinicians and researchers globally. For more information or to apply for a grant, download the EHE Research Grant Submission Guidelines.

Research Grant Submission Guidelines

Timeline	Dates
Letter of Intent Deadline	May 1, 2023
Notification to Submit a Full Application	May 15,2023
Full Applications Deadline	June 15, 2023
Award Notification	August 15, 2023

If you would like more information or to discuss a proposal concept, please email [email protected].

Previously awarded grants are shown below. To view additional Foundation funded research projects, please go to Research Projects & Initiatives.

Grants Awarded

2022

Use of Pre-clinical EHE Models to Identify Druggable Pathways to Treat EHE, Principal Investigator: John Lamar, PhD, Albany Medical College, Albany, NY

Award Amount: $200,000 over a three-year project (plus an additional matching a $250,000 private, designated donation toward this research). Award Year: 2022

Research Goal: To reveal pathways that can be targeted with existing FDA-approved drugs to either eliminate EHE or prevent its growth.

Research Objectives:

Identify druggable pathways that are required for TAZ-CAMTA1 activity and EHE growth/viability.
Establish and optimize an EHE transplant model system in mice for testing therapeutic compounds.
Develop multiplexed in vivo assays in mice and use them to test multiple therapeutic targets.

Repurposing an FDA-approved Drug for EHE Treatment, Principal Investigator: Ajaybabu Pobbati, PhD, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH

Understanding and Exploiting the Genomic Instability Promoted by TAZ-CAMTA1, Principal Investigator: Valerie Kouskoff, PhD, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

2022 EHE Fellowship Travel Grants awarded to Caleb Seavey, MD, PhD, Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute and Karin Schlegelmilch, PhD, The Francis Crick Institute (UK).

2021

TAZ-CAMTA1 Regulation by the Calcium Sensor Calmodulin, Principal Investigator: John Lamar, PhD, Albany Medical College, Albany, NY

Award Amount: $150,000 over a three-year project (US Foundation award of $120,000 in partnership with EHE Rare Cancer Foundation Australia award of $30,000); Award Year: 2021

Research Objectives: Aim 1: Test Calmodulin represses TAZ-CAMTA1 activity and tumorigenic function. Aim 2: Determine the mechanism of Calmodulin regulation of TAZ-CAMTA1. Aim 3: Determine if Calcium-Calmodulin signaling represses TAZ-CAMTA1 in mouse EHE cells.

Investigating the early molecular mechanisms of WWTR1-CAMTA1 and YAP1-TFE3 gene fusions in driving the Epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (EHE), Principal Investigator: Cristina Antonescu, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY

Award Amount: $60,000 (US Foundation award of $52,500 in partnership with EHE Rare Cancer Foundation Australia award of $7,500); Award Year: 2021

Research Objectives: Aim 1: Investigate the transcriptional and epigenetic profile of EHE tumors. Aim 2: Establishing in vitro models of EHE to evaluate early steps of cellular transformation. Aim 3: Investigate the epigenetic landscape of cells expressing the fusion in various cellular contexts by comprehensive epigenome mapping. Aim 4: Developing in vivo models of fusion positive EHE.

Evaluation of Cytokines and Hormones Biomarkers for EHE, Principal Investigator: Sylvia Stacchiotti, MD and Nadia Zaffaroni, PhD of Fondazione IRCCS Instituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy and Paul Huang, MD, Institute of Cancer Research, London, England

Award Amount: $40,000 (US Foundation partnership with EHE Group funding); Award Year: 2021

Research Objectives: To assess 1) the profiles of circulating cytokines, hormones (and miRNAs), and ii) the ERα, Erβ and GPER expression and the YAP/TAZ activation in tumor tissues, as a function of the clinical course of the disease. To this end the analysis will be conducted on the whole study patient population compared to healthy controls, and by stratifying EHE patients who will enter the study in 3 subgroups according to disease behavior (non-growing disease, slow- growing disease, highly aggressive disease with evidence of pleural effusion and systemic symptoms), and 2) the identification and validation of novel biomarkers to inform patient management (prognosticators and predictors of response to medical agents) as well as potential therapeutic targets.

YAP-TFE3 GEMM Initiative, Principal Investigator: Brian Rubin, MD, PhD, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH

Award Amount: $10,000; Award Year: 2020

Project Overview: This project is initiated with the passion of EHE patient advocates, Lael Bellamy & Lynne Heckman Rabinowitz, to develop Foster’s mouse, a YAP-TFE3 genetically engineered mouse model (GEMM). Through generous gifts and contributions, Dr. Rubin will initiate the development of a YAP-TFE3 GEMM for EHE and also to provide insights into other cancer research. It is estimated that 90% of EHE tumors contain a WWTR1-CAMTA1 gene fusion, and the other 10% contain a YAP1-TFE3 gene fusion. This research will aim to further research in this very rare gene fusion.

Development and Analytical Validation of a Circulating Cell-Free DNA (cfDNA) Assay Specific for Epithelioid Hemangioendothelioma (EHE), Principal Investigator: Minetta Liu, MD, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN

Award Amount: $60,000; Award Year: 2020

Research Objectives: The ability to use serial blood-based monitoring to identify clinically relevant disease recurrence and/or progression should provide clinicians with a means by which to intervene when a true impact on survival is achievable. This research aims to develop and validate a highly specific cfDNA based assay to detect WWTR1-CAMTA1 and YAP1-TFE3 fusions in patients with a tissue biopsy confirmed diagnosis of EHE.

Identification of TAZ-CAMTA1 Regulators, Principal Investigator: John Lamar, PhD, Albany Medical College, Albany, NY

Award Amount: $20,000 (US Foundation partnership with EHE Group funding); Award Year: 2019

Research Objectives: This research aims to test the hypothesis that the TAZ-CAMTA1 fusion protein is subject to regulation by Hippo-pathway independent mechanisms that could be exploited to inhibit TAZ-CAMTA1 function and treat EHE. The research will test the hypothesis using the following aims: 1) identify regulators of the TAZ-CAMTA1 fusion protein and assess their therapeutic potential, and 2) establish model systems to assay TAZ-CAMTA1 function in in vitro and in vivo and use to test therapeutic potential of candidate TAZ-CAMTA1 regulators.

Molecular and Immune Characterization of EHE Clinical Subtypes, Principal Investigator: Christina Antonescu, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY

Award Amount: $120,000; Award Year: 2019

Research Objectives: A comprehensive study of EHE genetics and the tumor microenvironment. The study aims to map intra-tumoral molecular differences between various subtypes of EHE, as well as variations in immune cells infiltrating and surrounding EHE tumors. The objective of this research is to identify potential targets for various types of treatments including immunotherapy. Publications resulting from this grant include:

2021 EHE Fellowship Travel Grant awarded to Keith Garcia, Graduate Research Assistant, Cancer Biology PhD Program at the University of Iowa

Grants Awarded

2022

2021

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