For
Immediate Release
(New York, NY – December 1, 2007) Joan’s Legacy: The Joan Scarangello Foundation to Conquer Lung Cancer announced its funding of $1,200,000 in grants for new research into lung cancer. The 2007 grants, which include six $100,000 grants made in collaboration with other research-focused lung cancer nonprofits, will support twelve different research projects at nationally-recognized institutions and bring the foundation’s total research funding to over $3.6 Million in five years.
“In 2007, we received a record-breaking 65 proposals for funding. This overwhelming response demonstrates how funding availability can stimulate the scientific community to focus efforts on this often neglected disease with its resultingly low survival rates,” said Joan’s Legacy President Mary Ann Tighe.
This year, in keeping with its commitment to fund groundbreaking research, including non-smoking lung cancer, Joan’s Legacy and its partners will fund the following projects:
- Mark M. Fuster, M.D., University of California, San Diego: Novel Targeting for Two Faces of Bronchioalveolar Carcinoma
- Yixuan Gong, Ph.D., Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center: Exploiting Apoptotic Pathways to Enhance Responses of Mutant EGFR-dependent Lung Adenocarcinoma to Kinase Inhibitors
- David Neil Hayes, M.D., M.P.H, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill: Molecular Subtypes of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
- John Heymach, M.D., Ph.D., MD Anderson Cancer Center: EGFR/estrogen Interactions: Role in Bronchioalveolar Carcinoma and Gender Differences in the Efficacy of Antiangiogenic Therapy
- Federico Innocenti, Ph.D., University of Chicago: Genetics of VEGFR-2 in Bronchioalveolar Carcinoma
- Carla F. Kim, Ph.D., Children's Hospital Boston: Isolation and Characterization of Bronchioalveolar Carcinoma Stem Cells
- David J. Kwiatkowski, M.D., Ph.D., Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Role of TSC Genes in Lung Cancer
- Hayley McDaid, Ph.D., Albert Einstein College of Medicine: Mechanisms of RAS- and RAF-mediated Regulation of Cap-dependent Translation in NSCLC
- Rafaella Sordella, Ph.D., Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory: Role of Estrogen in Regulating the Activity of EGFR in NSCLC
- E. Alejandro Sweet-Cordero, M.D., Stanford University: Functional Analysis of Novel Oncogenic Kras Effector Pathways
- Matthew K. Topham, M.D., University of Utah: Role of COX-2 and Inflammation in Tumors with Activating EGFR Mutations
- Bingcheng Wang, Ph.D., Case Western Reserve Medical Center: Harnessing the Intrinsic Tumor Suppressor Activities of EphA2 Kinase for Lung Cancer Therapy
In 2007, the Kate McMullen Foundation, LUNGevity Foundation and the Thomas G. Labrecque Foundation partnered with Joan’s Legacy to co-fund six of the twelve research grants. “We are so proud to be working with these like-minded organizations. Collaboration is vital to winning the fight against lung cancer,” said Joan’s Legacy Executive Director, Susan Mantel.
Joan’s Legacy is also pleased to announce a new grant called the “Hope Now Award for Lung Cancer Research,” funded by Chawla Hope Initiatives. Initiated by three-year lung cancer survivor Prem Chawla this one-year award is given to recognize demonstrated excellence of research labs seeking to develop novel treatment options for lung cancer survivors.
The 2007 Hope Now Awardees are:
Pasi Janne, M.D., Ph.D., Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
William Pao, M.D., Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Joan’s Legacy is named for Joan Scarangello, a writer and nonsmoker who died at age 47 after a valiant nine-month fight with lung cancer. Joan’s Legacy is committed to fighting lung cancer by searching for a cure and focusing greater attention on the world’s leading cancer killer. Funding more than $3.6 million in new and cutting-edge research in only five years, Joan’s Legacy is fast becoming the venture capital source for lung cancer research.
Lung cancer is the number one cancer killer in the United States, taking more than 160,000 lives each year. Yet lung cancer receives less research funding than almost any other cancer, making the work of Joan’s Legacy even more compelling.
Joan’s Legacy will make grant awards every Fall. The Foundation also hosts a benefit every November (Lung Cancer Awareness Month), which helps to fund its research initiatives. For more information about Joan’s Legacy and lung cancer, please visit www.joanslegacy.org.
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