Understanding the biology behind the development and progression of cancer is crucial to evaluating strategies for prevention and treatment. Researchers across campus are identifying diagnostic tools – from biomarkers to machine learning algorithms, early detection tests and more – that can help guide decisions for clinicians and patients and improve outcomes.

WARF is launching a WARF Accelerator Challenge to identify and support technologies on campus that impact this important area of research.

Grant Details

• WARF Accelerator will award 2-5 grants from a pool of approximately $100,000.
• Individuals and teams should complete these questions and submit them as an attachment to your innovation disclosure. Please include “Oncology Diagnostics Challenge” in the description of your innovation.
• WARF staff will evaluate proposals.
• Proposed research to be completed within a year.
• Project team must include a Principal Investigator (PI) at UW-Madison or the Morgridge Institute for Research.

Oncology Diagnostics Projects
We’re looking for projects that focus on new ways of diagnosing cancer and improving patient outcomes, including: novel and creative proof-of-concept work in identifying/validating novel biomarkers (proteins, nucleic acids, metabolites, pathogenic mutations, epigenetic changes or tissue morphological changes) associated with cancer and/or platforms for diagnosing the presence of the disease, characterizing the stage of disease, optimizing treatment or tracking how the disease responds to treatment.

More information, guidelines and criteria