Lustgarten Foundation
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NEW GRANT PROGRAMS: BUILDING MOMENTUM THROUGH NOVEL RESEARCH LUSTGARTEN FOUNDATION-AACR CAREER DEVELOPMENT AWARDS FOR PANCREATIC CANCER RESEARCH IN HONOR OF RUTH BADER GINSBURG AND JOHN ROBERT LEWIS
When pancreatic cancer claimed the lives of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Congressman John Robert Lewis last year, the world grieved. In honor of their public fight for equality—and privately against pancreatic cancer—we established two three-year, $300,000 career development awards to address the need for greater gender and racial diversity within the pancreatic cancer research community. The inaugural recipients are:
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Award Dannielle Engle, PhD, an assistant professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, will investigate the role of pancreatitis and inflammation in the formation of pancreatic cancer.
John Robert Lewis Award Avery D. Posey, Jr., PhD, an assistant professor in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, will continue his research to
increase immune system efficacy at attacking pancreatic cancer. The program is supported by Bristol Myers Squibb and is administered by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).
THERAPEUTICS-FOCUSED RESEARCH PROGRAM This novel program will foster collaboration and enable researchers to identify new therapeutic approaches and/or drug targets. The Lustgarten Foundation created this unique program to develop a robust pipeline of potential treatments. Funded projects address four key areas of pancreatic cancer biology: Discovering how the stroma—the supportive tissue surrounding the pancreatic tumor—may block treatments from reaching the tumor and design therapies to penetrate this barrier. Understanding and discovering how to block the inflammatory signals that can lead to pancreatic cancer and other pancreatic diseases in response to environmental triggers. Determining ways to stop tumor cell growth by blocking the abnormal metabolic pathways used by pancreatic cancer cells. Preventing the spread—or metastasis—of cancer by isolating metastatic triggers in cancer cells and the stroma.
11 Grants Awarded
$12.3 m in funding awarded More than
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