Researchers Received Grant for Breast Cancer Study

UMass Amherst secured $13.1 million in funding to develop new bacterial treatments for resistant breast cancer.

Updated on Oct. 5, 2026 in Cancer

Petri dishes with cell cultures on a laboratory bench, highlighting scientific medical research. — The National Institutes of Health awarded a $13.1 million grant to researchers at UMass Amherst and Weill Cornell Medicine to develop new microbial cancer treatments. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

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The National Institutes of Health awarded a $13.1 million grant to researchers at UMass Amherst and Weill Cornell Medicine. The project aims to engineer salmonella to target drug-resistant triple-negative breast cancer over the next five years.

Why it matters

The research project seeks to overcome immune system evasion by cancer cells and reduce the toxic side effects associated with current radiation therapies. This approach aims to create more effective microbial therapies for patients with aggressive, hard-to-treat cancer.

The $13.1 million grant supports a five-year research period dedicated to developing microbial cancer therapies. The success of this funding versus other grant benchmarks will be measured by the development of new treatments for triple-negative breast cancer.

The players

UMass Amherst

This public research university serves as the primary site for the engineering and development of the new salmonella-based cancer therapy.

National Institutes of Health

This federal agency is responsible for biomedical and public health research and provided the $13.1 million grant for this breast cancer study.

Weill Cornell Medicine

This academic medical center is partnering with UMass Amherst to provide clinical and research expertise for the cancer project.

Ernest Pharmaceuticals

This firm is the industry partner supporting the research efforts into developing new microbial therapies for cancer treatment.

The details

The research team plans to engineer salmonella to deliver cancer-killing viruses and guide radiopharmaceutical therapy directly to tumor sites. Scientists will also coat cancer cells with a COVID-derived protein to trigger an immune system attack, effectively bypassing the tumor's natural defenses.

UMass Amherst announced the $13.1 million NIH grant award on October 5, 2026.
The project is scheduled to run over the next five years.

The Big Picture

This project aligns with the funding priorities of the National Institutes of Health, which increasingly emphasizes innovative immunotherapy and precision medicine. The work marks a strategic pivot toward using synthetic biology and bacteria as vehicles for targeted cancer treatment.

This research could eventually offer new treatment avenues for patients with drug-resistant triple-negative breast cancer. The findings may lead to therapies that reduce the severity of side effects compared to traditional radiation protocols.

The takeaway

This project represents a significant shift toward utilizing modified bacteria as a therapeutic delivery system for solid tumors. If successful, the research could establish a new standard for targeting aggressive cancers while sparing healthy tissue from radiation damage.