Stand Up To Cancer Awards $225,000 Nicolai Grant to Fund mRNA Vaccine and KRAS-Targeted TCR-T Cell Therapy Combination

Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) announced the recipients of its Nina Nicolai Pancreatic Cancer Innovation in Collaboration Award, providing approximately $225,000 to fund a multi-institutional research project pairing an mRNA vaccine with a KRAS-targeted cellular therapy for pancreatic cancer.¹ The collaborative project is led by Eric Tran, PhD, of Providence Cancer Institute in Portland, Oregon, who directs the Adoptive Cell Therapy Laboratory at Providence's Earle A. Chiles Research Institute, and Di Liu, PhD, an assistant professor in Arizona State University's School of Molecular Sciences and Biodesign Institute.¹ Julian Adams, PhD, president and chief executive officer of SU2C, said in a news release, "The Nicolai Award supports innovative collaborations that we believe have great potential to lead to effective new treatments for pancreatic cancer."¹

How does the combination approach work?

The project centers on engineering an mRNA vaccine with a specialized Cap2 structure, a chemical feature added to the front end of the mRNA molecule, designed to help sustain antigen production over time.¹ The vaccine is intended to provide ongoing stimulation for KRAS G12D-directed T-cell receptor-engineered T cell (TCR-T) therapy, a form of adoptive cellular immunotherapy in which a patient's own T cells are genetically modified to recognize a specific mutant antigen, in this case, the KRAS G12D mutation found in a majority of pancreatic tumors.¹ Di Liu, PhD, said, "In the setting of cancer immunotherapy, vaccine-induced innate immune activation can be helpful for stimulating antitumor immunity, but can also suppress mRNA translation. Our goal is to explore whether Cap2 mRNA can help maintain antigen production under these conditions and thereby better support TCR-T cell responses against pancreatic cancer."¹

Why does KRAS G12D matter as a target in pancreatic cancer?

KRAS mutations drive the vast majority of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cases, with mutant KRAS present in nearly all tumors, making it one of the most consistently expressed and clinically pursued targets in the disease.² Because KRAS mutations are absent from normal tissue, T cells engineered to recognize mutant KRAS are less likely to cause on-target, off-tumor toxicity compared to therapies targeting antigens also present on healthy cells, though mKRAS-directed T-cell approaches have historically been limited by complex manufacturing logistics and dependence on specific HLA allele matches.² Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most difficult cancers to treat, with a five-year survival rate around 13%, underscoring the urgency behind combination immunotherapy approaches targeting this mutation.³

What is the significance of pairing a vaccine with cell therapy specifically?

Combining a sustained-antigen mRNA vaccine with TCR-T cell therapy represents a distinct strategy from vaccine-alone or cell-therapy-alone approaches already in development for KRAS-mutated pancreatic cancer. The rationale reflects a broader challenge in the field: vaccine-induced innate immune responses, while helpful for initiating antitumor immunity, can simultaneously suppress the translation of the vaccine's own mRNA, potentially limiting how long antigen presentation is sustained.¹ By engineering the Cap2 structure specifically to help the mRNA resist this suppression, the research team aims to extend antigen availability long enough to provide durable support for the adoptively transferred TCR-T cells.¹

What happens next?

Funding from the Nicolai Award will support Liu's team at Arizona State University in engineering and testing the Cap2 mRNA vaccine construct, working in coordination with Tran's cell therapy laboratory at Providence.¹ The release did not specify a timeline for preclinical or clinical testing of the combination approach.¹

References

1. Stand Up To Cancer Nicolai Award will fund KRAS-targeted immunotherapy combination for pancreatic cancer. News release. Stand Up To Cancer; August 11, 2026. Accessed August 11, 2026.
2. Gu M, Gao Y, Chang P. KRAS mutation dictates the cancer immune environment in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and other adenocarcinomas. Cancers (Basel). 2021;13(10):2429. doi:10.3390/cancers13102429
3. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Investigational pancreatic cancer vaccine shows lasting results in early trial, supporting continued testing. Published April 2026. Accessed August 11, 2026.