Congratulations to Our Ten Award Winners

The Cancer Research Foundation is proud to announce its 2026 Young Investigator
Award recipients. This year’s YIAs are an exceptional group of early-career scientists
focused on some of the most innovative and promising directions in cancer research
today.

The work these Young Investigator Awards will fund highlights the growing precision of
modern cancer science, our increasing ability to understand how cancer develops and
how it becomes treatment resistant, and the expanding role of artificial intelligence in
accelerating discovery and improving patient care. This year’s CRF Young
Investigators, early-career researchers from Northwestern University, the University of
Chicago, and Washington University in St. Louis, are pursuing a wide range of
potentially game-changing ideas.

Some of this year’s CRF Young Investigator projects will use artificial intelligence to
detect early-stage cancers through voice analysis and will create AI models to improve
prognosis and treatment response in brain cancers. Others will investigate particular
proteins that are implicated in cancer development and therapy resistance. A number
of this year’s YIAs will consider metastatic disease, pursuing a range of fields of study
from how metastases differ depending on location to how the nervous system might
support the growth of metastatic disease. 2026 Young Investigators will focus on
specific cancers including pancreatic, brain, laryngeal, and lung cancers, as well as
blood cancers, but many will also address issues like reversing immunotherapy
resistance and harnessing cell senescence, investigations that may have applications
for many types of cancers.

For more than 30 years, the Cancer Research Foundation’s Young Investigator Awards
have provided critical initial support to scientists at a pivotal moment in their careers,
when bold ideas have the potential to reshape the field but often lack traditional funding.
Each award provides $100,000 over two years, enabling recipients to establish their
research, generate essential preliminary data, and pursue high-risk, high-reward
approaches.

The CRF Young Investigator Awards also foster a community of collaboration among
funded scientists. All current and past awardees are invited to participate in CRF’s
annual meeting, an event that connects cancer scientists across disciplines
and allows them to share insights and build relationships. Awardees are also invited to several opportunities to connect with other scientists throughout the year.

At the Cancer Research Foundation, we believe that investing early in exceptional
scientists provides a high-leverage opportunity to drive meaningful progress in cancer
research. Each year, we are inspired by the caliber and creativity of our awardees, and
our 2026 cohort is no exception. Please join us in congratulating the 2026 Cancer
Research Foundation Young Investigator Award winners.

Brandon Jackson Baird, MD | Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery, University of Chicago
YIA Project: A Pilot Study to Characterize the Voice Signatures Associated with Early Glottic Cancer

Ryan B. Day, MD, PhD | Assistant Professor of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis
YIA Project: CBF Dysregulation in AML

Lillian J. Eichner | Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, Northwestern University
YIA Project: Inducing Senescence in Cancer: New Approaches for Harnessing a Stallion

Johanna Melo-Cardenas, PhD | Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology, Northwestern University
YIA Project: Uncovering a New Ubiquitin-Dependent Mechanism to Enhance IFN-α Efficacy in Myeloproliferative Neoplasms

Janane Rahbani, PhD | Assistant Professor, Section of Hematology and Oncology, University of Chicago
YIA Project: Bone-Marrow Adipocytes Integrate Dietary Lipids to Reprogram Leukemia Metabolism and Therapy Response

Felipe Almeida de Pinho Ribeiro, PhD | Assistant Professor, Department of Dermatology, Washington University in St. Louis
YIA Project: Deciphering the Neural Basis of Metastatic Colonization

Hussein Sultan, PhD | Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University in St. Louis
YIA Project: Targeting Tr1 Cells to Enhance Cancer Immunotherapy

Kaloyan Tsanov, PhD Breakthrough Board Scholar | Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine and Ben May Department for Cancer Research, University of Chicago
YIA Project: Understanding and Exploiting Organ-specific Mechanisms in Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer

Conghui Yao, PhD | Assistant Professor, Ben May Department for Cancer Research, University of Chicago
YIA Project: Targeting Glycerol Metabolism in anti-tumor Immunity

Junhan Zhao, PhD | Research Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Chicago
YIA Project: AI-Driven Integration of Pathologic, Radiomic, and Clinical Features for Prognostic and Treatment-Response Prediction in Gliomas