American Cancer Society Awards $792,000 grant to Bryan Smith’s research team

Funding to help reverse immune cells’ inhibitory behavior in tumors

Originally published on MSU College of Engineering website on Feb 13, 2024

The American Cancer Society (ACS), the largest non-government, non-profit funding source of cancer research in the U.S., recently approved funding for a Michigan State University researcher’s project to fight cancer.

Bryan Smith, Biomedical Engineering associate professor, and his team were recently awarded a $792,000 grant that supports research in immune cells and their ability to attack potentially cancerous tumor cells.

“We’re excited and so grateful to the American Cancer Society for supporting this study, which will allow our team of chemists, biologists, and physicians to develop these novel anti-cancer agents,” Smith said. 

Working from the university’s Institute for Quantitative Health, Smith and his team developed a nanoparticle – a particle of matter between 1 and 100 nanometers in diameter – that’s designed to reverse immune cells’ inhibitory behavior in tumors, and instead attack tumor cells.

The size of one nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. 

Smith’s three-year project is supported by the American Cancer Society ‘s Extramural Discovery Science research that currently supports more than 700 research grants across the cancer continuum at more than 200 institutions.

Smith and his team recently created a new way to image immune cells in living subjects that could enable new treatment opportunities and better outcomes for patients with Type 1 diabetes. Smith’s diabetes research was featured in a November 2023 story by Lansing’s WILX-TV News 10.

Last April, Smith’s work to develop nanomedicines to fight cardiovascular disease was featured by MSUToday. 

Written by Eric Lacy, lacyeric@msu.edu. See more at the Engineering Media and Public Relations page.