Monday, September 15, 2025 9/15/2025

Northwestern University Center for Chromatin NanoImaging in Cancer (NU-CCNIC)

Award Number: U54CA268084
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 12/10/2021
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 11/30/2026

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Northwestern University Center for Chromatin NanoImaging in Cancer (NU-CCNIC) - Overall: PROJECT SUMMARY Cancer stem cells (CSCs) play a critical role in fostering tumor resistance to therapies and relapse after treatment. This presents a crucial barrier to the development of successful anti-cancer therapeutics. Transcriptional reprogramming and plasticity play a critical role in and out of the CSC state, which in turn are interdependent on the regulatory function of the three-dimensional (3D) structure of chromatin, epigenetic states, and other molecular events. Our understanding of fundamental CSC biology has been hampered by the need for cellular nanoscale imaging technologies that provide both highly detailed structural information regarding 3D chromatin organization and highly multiplexed molecular imaging of the many molecular regulators and events involved in CSC processes. We propose to establish the Northwestern University Center for Chromatin Nanoimaging in Cancer (NU-CCNIC) to address this fundamental technology gap in cellular nanoscale imaging and deploy the new technologies to address the fundamental knowledge gap in CSC biology. The Center converges experts in cellular nanoscale imaging, computational imaging, molecular modeling, computational genomics, CSC biology, and oncology. The Center will develop, test, validate, iterate, and deploy an integrated and co-registered Multi-scale Chromatin Nanoimaging Platform that will comprise three “nested-doll” imaging techniques: chromatin scanning transmission electron microscopy, optical spectroscopic super-resolution nanoscopy, and optical spectroscopic nanosensing. The Nanoimaging Platform will enable quantitative imaging of chromatin structure and highly multiplexed molecular and gene-specific localization, at the most fundamental length-scale approaching 1 nm resolution, including the imaging of statistically significant cell populations and live cells with high temporal resolution over prolonged temporal follow-up times. The Nanoimaging Platform will be bridged to computational genomics, epigenomics, genome mapping, and predictive transcriptional modeling datasets. These technologies will be deployed to answer several long-standing open questions in CSC biology. We will elucidate whether CSCs can originate from non-CSCs via transcriptional reprogramming, test the role of chromatin structure in fostering transcriptional plasticity in CSC processes, and explore the possibility of transcriptionally reprogramming CSCs to exit the stem-state as a new therapeutic strategy. All aspects of the technology development will be guided by the needs of the CSC biology testbed through a series of research feedback loops. In the long term, such single-cell nanoimaging technologies will help comprehensive understanding of the complex interplay between structural, physico-chemical, and molecular genomic events. We anticipate that these convergence studies will provide new insights into CSC biology, which are impossible to reveal with the use of any single method, and open new opportunities for identifying therapeutic strategies.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $1,656,575 )
2025	2025	NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY	633 CLARK ST	EVANSTON	IL	60208	COOK	USA	Cancer Centers Support Grants	001	4	8/26/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$165,657
2025	2025	NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY	633 CLARK ST	EVANSTON	IL	60208	COOK	USA	Cancer Centers Support Grants	000	4	12/3/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$1,490,918
														Subtotal = $1,656,575

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $1,573,684 )
2024	2024	NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY	633 CLARK STREET	EVANSTON	IL	60208	COOK	USA	Cancer Centers Support Grants	000	3	12/20/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$1,491,008
2024	2024	NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY	633 CLARK STREET	EVANSTON	IL	60208	COOK	USA	Cancer Centers Support Grants	001	3	12/28/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
2024	2024	NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY	633 CLARK ST	EVANSTON	IL	60208	COOK	USA	Cancer Centers Support Grants	002	3	4/26/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$82,676
														Subtotal = $1,573,684

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $1,832,299 )
2023	2023	NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY	633 CLARK	EVANSTON	IL	60208	COOK	USA	Cancer Centers Support Grants	000	2	11/29/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$1,492,684
2023	2023	NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY	633 CLARK STREET	EVANSTON	IL	60208	COOK	USA	Cancer Centers Support Grants	002	2	7/19/2023	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$169,298
2023	2023	NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY	633 CLARK STREET	EVANSTON	IL	60208	COOK	USA	Cancer Centers Support Grants	001	2	3/15/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$132,684
2023	2023	NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY	633 CLARK STREET	EVANSTON	IL	60208	COOK	USA	Cancer Centers Support Grants	003	2	9/19/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$37,633
														Subtotal = $1,832,299

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $1,720,444 )
2022	2022	NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY	633 CLARK	EVANSTON	IL	60208	COOK	USA	Cancer Centers Support Grants	001	1	9/8/2022	NEW	$159,669
2022	2022	NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY	633 CLARK	EVANSTON	IL	60208	COOK	USA	Cancer Centers Support Grants	000	1	12/10/2021	NEW	$1,560,775
														Subtotal = $1,720,444

Grand Total All Awards = $6,783,002

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Northwestern University Center for Chromatin NanoImaging in Cancer (NU-CCNIC)

Award Number: U54CA268084

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 12/10/2021

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 11/30/2026

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