Understanding how gut bacteria relate to cancer and responses to treatment
Official title: Exploiting Public Metagenomic Data to Uncover Cancer-Microbiome Relationships
Funded at Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy · NIH-11415653 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project uses public microbiome data to explore how bacteria in the body relate to cancer and how patients respond to immunotherapy.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (New York, United States) |
| Project start | July 1, 2019 |
| Project end | August 31, 2029 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $1,280,271 |
| NIH project number | 4R01CA230551-08 |
| Project ID | NIH-11415653 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Not applicable as described; this grant focuses on developing and analyzing existing datasets.
✕Less likely to help
Direct patient participation is not described in this grant.
What this research studies
Researchers will harmonize and expand large public microbiome datasets to better understand cancer-related microbial signals. They will add features like bacterial functions and metabolic predictions, create user-friendly workflows for analyzing microbial patterns, and ensure data are FAIR (easy to share and reuse). The work involves building and enhancing databases that researchers can use to study links between bacteria and colorectal cancer and treatment outcomes. This is about data resources, meta-analyses, and methods for analyzing complex microbial data rather than enrolling patients directly.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: Improved understanding of cancer-microbiome relationships could lead to better biomarkers and more effective, personalized treatments in the future.
How similar studies have gone: Previous studies show that microbiome data can be linked to cancer and treatment responses, but this project aims to harmonize data at a larger scale.
Where this research is happening
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Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy
New York, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Waldron, Levi — Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy
- Study coordinator: Waldron, Levi
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.