Researchers at The Ottawa Hospital awarded $1.6M from Canadian Cancer Society

Researchers at The Ottawa Hospital are leading or co-leading three innovative new projects funded through the Canadian Cancer Society’s 2026 Challenge Grants Competition. 

Worth $525,000 each, these projects aim to develop a new preventative treatment for ovarian cancer, novel immunotherapies for prostate cancer and broader access to Canadian-made CAR T cell therapy for blood cancer. 

Project details

• Helping expand access to Canadian-made CAR T cell therapy in Canada 
  • Principal Investigators: Kednapa Thavorn, Natasha Kekre
  • Co-Investigators: Kelvin Chan, Brian Hutton, Stuart Peacock, Justin Presseau, Elisabeth Vesnaver 
• A preventive treatment to reduce ovarian cancer risk
  • Principal Investigators: Barbara Vanderhyden, David Cook
  • Co-Investigators: Kianoosh Keyhanian, David Landry
• Creating new made-in-Canada prostate cancer treatments
  • Principal Investigators: Scott McComb and Michael Ong
  • Co-Investigators: Mehdi Arbabi-Ghahroudi, Joey Sheff, Jennifer Hill, Tyler Renner, Chris Corbeil, Scott Morgan
  • Note: This grant is administered at the National Research Council 

The Canadian Cancer Society’s Challenge Grants Competition supports cancer research projects across the cancer continuum and across disciplines, with an ultimate goal of solving a problem (i.e., a “challenge”) in cancer that is meaningful to people affected by or at risk of cancer. See the full competition results with project descriptions.