Discovery Grants

Discovery Grants are one-year, $50,000 grants for high risk, high impact research with the potential to change current diagnostic or treatment models.

Discovery research projects are pre-screened by Letter of Intent (LOI), typically available in November, with LOIs due in December each year. Invitations and instructions to submit a full proposal are extended by email in February, with applications due in March.

Your research can make a difference

The ABTA funded a Discovery Grant for Michael Olin, PhD, in 2012 to study how glioblastomas suppress the immune system. During this study, he discovered an immunosuppressive protein that was upregulated in response to anti-tumor vaccines.

Dr. Olin now has a way to block it, and has founded a drug company, OX2 Therapeutics, to produce the inhibitor. He and his colleagues have tested the drug in a clinical trial for companion dogs. Development of the human inhibitor is now complete and the FDA granted approval to begin a Phase I trial for patients with high-grade brain tumors. Dr. Olin and his colleagues hope to extend the trial to other solid tumors in the near future.