2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005

Members of the Damon Runyon scientific circle regularly publish findings on the latest cancer research and are frequently recognized for their contributions to the fight against cancer.  Below, you will find new discoveries in cancer research and the most recent honors bestowed upon Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation awardees, alumni and friends.

2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005

Members of the Damon Runyon scientific circle regularly publish findings on the latest cancer research and are frequently recognized for their contributions to the fight against cancer.  Below, you will find new discoveries in cancer research and the most recent honors bestowed upon Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation awardees, alumni and friends.

2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005

Members of the Damon Runyon scientific circle regularly publish findings on the latest cancer research and are frequently recognized for their contributions to the fight against cancer.  Below, you will find new discoveries in cancer research and the most recent honors bestowed upon Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation awardees, alumni and friends.

2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005

Members of the Damon Runyon scientific circle regularly publish findings on the latest cancer research and are frequently recognized for their contributions to the fight against cancer.  Below, you will find new discoveries in cancer research and the most recent honors bestowed upon Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation awardees, alumni and friends.

Join us on August 18, 2013 for the 5th annual Runyon 5K, a unique cancer research fundraising run/walk that uses Yankee Stadium as its course. Run or walk the concourses and ramps, climb stairs between levels, and take your own victory laps around the warning track that circles the field! 

Online registration is now open! Entry is limited to 4,000, so visit the Runyon 5K website for more details or to register today!

If you would like to be added to our email list to receive news and updates about the 2013 Runyon 5K, please sign up for our Runyon 5K Email Alert.

Read the full press release on the 2012 Runyon 5K.

See photos from the 2012 Runyon 5K.

See videos on Youtube from the 2012 Runyon 5K.
 

New York, NY (May 7, 2013) — The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation honored Sir Martin Sorrell, Group Chief Executive of WPP, the world’s largest communications services group, at its 2013 Annual Breakfast, held on Tuesday morning at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City. The Breakfast raised more than $1.35 million to support the nation’s most revolutionary young cancer researchers, pursuing work that promises to accelerate cures. Alan M. Leventhal, Damon Runyon Chairman of the Board, welcomed guests to a program that included research updates from two Damon Runyon scientists: Stirling Churchman, PhD, a Dale F. Frey Breakthrough Scientist at Harvard Medical School, and Gregory Beatty, MD, PhD, a Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovator at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Churchman discussed her work using state-of-the-art technology to enable a “deep and complete view of how genomic information is read by the cell” in hopes of discovering potential targets for new cancer drugs.
	Dr. Beatty shared his efforts to create a new immunotherapy for pancreatic cancer. He hopes to use the immune system to suppress signals that cause cancer growth and attack tumors from within. The event’s keynote speaker was Shirley Tilghman, PhD, a molecular biologist and President of Princeton University. Dr. Tilghman praised the progress made in cancer research and expressed her excitement about breakthroughs to come, telling attendees, “Cancer research is in its golden age. The whole paradigm of how we think about cancer is changing.” She went on to caution against complacency and reiterate the importance of Damon Runyon’s role in funding the best scientists in the early stages of their careers, saying, “The real success of American science is that we’ve always invested in the young.” The Breakfast concluded with remarks from Sir Martin Sorrell. In accepting his award, Sorrell praised Damon Runyon’s unique approach to fighting cancer, acknowledging the effect the disease had on his own family: “I am highly motivated, from a personal point of view, to eradicate cancer.”
Sorrell was introduced by longtime Damon Runyon Board Member Thomas J. Fahey, Jr., MD, who first met Sorrell at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center when his father was diagnosed with cancer. Dr. Fahey announced that Lydia Finley, PhD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering, would be named the Jack Sorrell Fellow of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, in honor of Sir Martin’s father. Sorrell thanked Damon Runyon and expressed his hopes that Dr. Finley and the other Damon Runyon scientists would make significant strides towards ending cancer, adding, “No pressure, but we’re counting on you.” View photos from the event.

To accelerate breakthroughs, the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation provides today's best young scientists with funding to pursue innovative research. The Foundation has gained worldwide prominence in cancer research by identifying outstanding researchers and physician-scientists. Eleven scientists supported by the Foundation have received the Nobel Prize, seven others have received National Medals of Science, and 63 have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Since its founding in 1946, Damon Runyon has invested more than $260 million and funded more than 3,380 young scientists.  

100% of all donations to the Foundation are used to support cutting-edge scientific research. Its administrative and fundraising costs are paid from its Damon Runyon Broadway Tickets and endowment. For more information visit www.damonrunyon.org.

CONTACT
Kim Kubert
Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation
212.455.0501
kim.kubert@damonrunyon.org

Election to the National Academy of Sciences is one of the highest honors that can be earned by a U.S. scientist.  In recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original biomedical research, 18 members of the Damon Runyon community of scientists were inducted this April:  

DAMON RUNYON FELLOWS
Stephen M. Beverley, PhD (Damon Runyon Fellow ‘79-‘81), Marvin A. Brennecke Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Chair, Department of molecular microbiology, Washington University, St. Louis
Daniel A. Portnoy, PhD (Damon Runyon Fellow ‘83-‘85), Professor of biochemistry, biophysics, and structural biology, Department of molecular and cell biology, University of California, Berkeley
Robert H. Singer, PhD (Damon Runyon Fellow '70-'72), Co-director, Gruss Lipper Biophotonics Center, and Professor and Co-chair, Department of anatomy and structural biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, Bronx

DAMON RUNYON AWARD COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Jef D.Boeke, PhD (Former Fellowship Award Committee, Fellowship Sponsor), Professor of molecular biology and genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore
Norbert Perrimon, PhD (Former Fellowship Award Committee, Fellowship Sponsor), Investigator, HHMI, and Professor, Department of genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston
Stephen R. Quake, DPhil (Current Innovation Award Committee), Investigator, HHMI, and Lee Otterson Professor, Departments of bioengineering and of applied physics, Stanford University, Stanford

DAMON RUNYON FELLOWSHIP SPONSORS
Ben A. Barres, MD, PhD; Professor and chair, Department of neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford
Edward M. De Robertis, MD, PhD; Investigator, HHMI, and Professor of biological chemistry and Norman Sprague Professor, School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles
Christopher C. Goodnow, PhD; Professor of immunology and Head, Department of immunology, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra City
Mitzi I. Kuroda, PhD; Professor, Department of genetics and department of medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston
Peter J. Novick, PhD; Professor of cellular and molecular medicine and George Palade Endowed Chair, department of cellular and molecular medicine, University of California, San Diego
Yigong Shi, PhD; Endowed Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Dean, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China
Nicholas C. Spitzer, PhD; Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego
Louis M. Staudt, MD, PhD; Deputy Chief, metabolism branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda
Galen D. Stucky, PhD; Professor, Departments of chemistry and biochemistry and of materials, University of California, Santa Barbara
Gerhard Wagner, PhD; Elkan Rogers Blout Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Department of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston
Graham C. Walker, PhD; Professor, Department of biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
Fred M. Winston, PhD; John Emory Andrus Professor of Genetics, Department of genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston

Click here for more. 

Matthew G. Vander Heiden, MD, PhD (Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovator '11-'13, Damon Runyon Fellow '06-'08) of MIT, Cambridge, and colleagues, reported the results of a large study analyzing gene expression data from 22 tumor types. They identified multiple changes in genes that regulate metabolism in cancer cells. The analysis also identified hundreds of potential drug targets that could block tumor growth. The study was published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

Click here for more. 

James E. Bradner, MD (Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovator '11-'13) of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, and colleagues, discovered a set of powerful gene regulators -"super-enhancers" that control cell state and identity. Important for gene control in healthy cells, super-enhancers are co-opted by cancer cells to overexpress oncogenes that lead to aggressive tumors. Treatment of multiple myeloma tumor cells with the drug JQ1 blocked the super-enhancer of the MYC oncogene and resulted in tumor growth arrest.  Researchers hope that novel cancer therapeutics can be developed against super-enhancers in other tumor types.  These findings were published in the journal Cell.

Click here and here for more. 

Oren J. Becher, MD (Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator ’12-’15) of Duke University, Durham, Laura A. Banaszynski, PhD (Angelo Family Fellow '08-'11) of The Rockefeller University, New York, and colleagues,  reported results that, for the first time, link a mutated histone protein to a rare brain stem cancer in children called diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPG). This histone typically silences expression of certain genes; when the histone is mutated in DIPG, cancer-promoting genes are aberrantly turned on. This study was published in the journal Science. 

Click here for more. 

New York’s leading business people and philanthropists come together each year to raise funds in support of innovative cancer research.

Held at a premier New York City location, our Annual Breakfast is an entertaining cancer fundraising event that gives guests the chance to learn about the important work of our scientists and network with well known New Yorkers – all before the work day starts. 

Annual Breakfast 2013

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation honored Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive of WPP, the world's leading communications services group, at our Annual Breakfast held on Tuesday, May 7, 2013 at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City. The event's keynote speaker was Shirley M. Tilghman, President of Princeton University and a leader in the fields of science and American higher education. Guests also heard from two current Damon Runyon scientists, Gregory Beatty, MD, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and Stirling Churchman, PhD, of Harvard Medical School, who discussed their current projects and the importance of funding innovative cancer research.

> Read the complete media release from the 2013 Annual Breakfast
> View photos from the 2013 Annual Breakfast

Renier J. Brentjens, MD, PhD (Damon Runyon-Lilly Clinical Investigator '06-'11) and colleagues at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, reported the success of immunotherapy treatment of adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).  Patients were treated with their own T immune cells, which had been genetically modified to target and attack the cancer cells.  The treatment induced rapid remissions in these patients.  The exciting findings were published in the journal Science Translational Medicine and featured in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Click here and here for more. 

Elaine V. Fuchs, PhD (Damon Runyon Board Member, Damon Runyon Fellow ‘77-‘79) of The Rockefeller University, New York, is one of three recipients of the Robert J. and Claire Pasarow Foundation Medical Research Awards in Cancer Research. She is honored for her extraordinary achievement, creativity and distinction in the field of skin stem cells.  Matthew P. Scott, PhD (Damon Runyon Fellowship Sponsor) of Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, is also a recipient of the award.  

Click here for more.