The Cornell Feline Health Center Research Grant Program provides vital financial support to Cornell researchers investigating issues that affect feline health. Projects currently funded by the Cornell Feline Health Center range from studies of feline GI disorders to feline cancer.

Scientific research has made feline medicine what it is today, and it’s making a healthier, happier tomorrow possible for cats around the world. If you believe in the positive power of our work to make a difference, please consider making a donation to the Cornell Feline Health Center today.

2026- 2027 Funded Research Projects:

Evaluation of cell-free DNA as a prognostic biomarker in feline gastrointestinal lymphoma

Lymphoma is one of the most common types of feline cancer, and it can develop in a variety of locations. The most common location for feline lymphoma to be diagnosed is the GI tract, and the most common forms of lymphoma of the GI tract in cats can be generally categorized as either low grade alimentary lymphoma (LGAL) or high-grade alimentary lymphoma (HGAL).

Both LGAL and HGAL cause symptoms (diarrhea, vomiting, weight loss) that mimic another very common cause of chronic GI disease in cats, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). IBD is a non-cancerous inflammatory disease that is treated differently and carries a more favorable prognosis than LGAL. Distinguishing LGAL from IBD currently requires an intestinal biopsy, which requires anesthesia, is costly, and is not practical for serial monitoring of patients.

While HGAL can often be diagnosed less invasively than LGAL by microscopic evaluation of aspirated samples of the GI masses and/or enlarged lymph nodes that are commonly seen with this disease, there is currently no way to predict response of HGAL to therapy in feline patients.

Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is fragmented, free-floating DNA that circulates through the blood stream, and in healthy individuals, the amount of cfDNA circulating in the blood stream is low. The fragmentation patterns and amount of cfDNA in patients can be altered by a variety of diseases, and a recent study has shown that cats with certain cancers (including lymphoma) have elevated cfDNA concentrations in their blood when compared to healthy controls. This study did not, however, specifically compare cfDNA concentrations in cats with LGAL, HGAL, and IBD.

This study will compare cfDNA concentrations and fragmentation patterns in cats with naturally-occurring LGAL, HGAL, IBD, and in healthy controls to define the clinical utility of cfDNA as a biomarker that can help diagnose, distinguish between, and perhaps predict therapeutic response in these common causes of GI disease in cats.

Investigator: Jessica Hayward, Ph.D.

Development of universal CAR-T cell therapy for lymphoma in cats

Lymphoma, a malignant cancer of the lymphatic system in which lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) grow in an uncontrolled fashion, is the most common form of cancer diagnosed in cats. Most feline lymphomas originate from a type of white blood cell called a T cell, which is vital to the immune system’s identification and elimination of foreign/abnormal cells.

 While currently available “conventional” chemotherapy can induce remission and prolong survival in cats diagnosed with lymphoma, many feline lymphoma patients relapse or fail to respond to chemotherapy.

Cancer immunotherapy, in which the immune system is utilized to specifically target and destroy cancer cells, has shown great promise in treating a variety of cancer types in humans and other species. A specific type of cancer immunotherapy, called chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapy, uses genetically modified T cells to target and destroy cancer cells.

Using innovative technology that has been refined in the laboratories of this study’s principal investigators with previous support of the Cornell Feline Health Center, this study will investigate the engineering of feline CAR T cells to target T cell-origin lymphoma in cats.

Investigator: Cynthia Leifer, Ph.D.

Interpreting feline genetic variation using sequence to function models

While most of us know that DNA carries instructions for the production (expression) of the proteins that make each of us (and our cats!) unique (called coding regions), many people don’t know that the majority of the actual DNA molecule is made up of regions (called non-coding regions) that do not code for protein production, but rather regulate when, where and how much of these proteins are produced (like “on-off” switches), maintain the structural integrity of genes, and how genes are rearranged as part of the evolutionary process.

Understanding the role of genetics in disease is vital to improving our ability to diagnose, treat, and prevent them, but advancing this understanding is complicated by the shear magnitude of the information contained within DNA. For example, there are approximately 2.8 billion “pairs” of linked molecules in the DNA of the cat, making the linkage of specific DNA sequences with diseases a monumental challenge.

This proof-of-principle study will apply cutting edge artificial intelligence (AI)-based models developed in Dr. Danko’s laboratory to the analysis of DNA from the tissues of cats diagnosed with several immune-mediated diseases, including feline chronic gingivostomatitis (FCGS), feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), feline eosinophilic keratoconjunctivitis (FEK), and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and Factor XII deficiency (which imparts a blood clotting defect) to identify specific non-coding DNA sequences that are associated with each disease.

The resulting models and datasets will enable more accurate and interpretable genetic markers for immune-related diseases and will provide valuable insight into their mechanisms. This insight has the strong potential to foster future improvements in how we diagnose, treat, and prevent these (and, ultimately, other) important feline (and human) diseases. 

Investigator: Charles Danko, Ph.D.

Role of the feline coronavirus spike protein domain 0 in viral pathogenesis and FIP

Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP) is a serious and potentially life-threatening inflammatory disease caused by mutated forms of feline coronaviruses (FCV) that are most commonly found within the GI tract of cats and not associated with significant disease.

While we know that mutation of these coronaviruses leads to their leaving the GI tract (translocation) by entering a type of white blood cell called a macrophage in which they can travel to various organs and cause the inflammatory syndrome that we know as FIP, the specific mechanisms by which this translocation and the subsequent inflammatory state takes place are unclear.

This study will continue the Whittaker lab’s cutting-edge research that has already provided important insights into the molecular mechanisms of FIP by focusing on a specific region (called domain 0) within the “spike” region of the virus, which it uses to gain access to a variety of cell types. This 0 domain is deleted in the spike proteins of some FCV forms, but not in others. 

A variety of molecular biologic, protein engineering, in vitro infection, and computer modelling approaches using both tissues from naturally occurring cases of FIP and cell-culture-based assays will be applied to test the hypothesis that the presence or absence of the 0 domain within the feline coronavirus spike domain is an important determinant of whether the virus stays within the GI tract or leaves it to cause the development of FIP. 

Investigator: Gary Whittaker, Ph.D.