Damon Runyon News

View New Articles By

News

Honors and AwardsApril 19, 2026

Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital award 2026 fellowships

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have once again teamed up to support a new class of pediatric cancer research fellows. The awards, totaling a $1.5 million investment, will fuel the work of five fellows who will each receive funding for four years ($300,000 total). Each fellow will conduct an innovative research project with the potential to significantly impact the diagnosis or treatment of one or more pediatric cancers.

New DiscoveriesApril 14, 2026

FDA approves novel treatment for acute myeloid leukemia

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is diagnosed in more than 20,000 people in the U.S. each year, and the five-year survival rate remains around 30%. For patients whose disease is driven by mutations in the gene NPM1, the most common mutation in adult AML, treatment options have long been limited.

Honors and AwardsApril 10, 2026

Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation awards $4.5M to top young scientists

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation has named 13 new Damon Runyon Fellows, exceptional postdoctoral scientists conducting basic and translational cancer research in the laboratories of leading senior investigators. The prestigious, four-year Fellowship encourages the nation’s most promising young scientists to pursue careers in cancer research by providing them with independent funding ($300,000 total) to investigate cancer causes, mechanisms, therapies, and prevention.

EventMarch 27, 2026

Damon Runyon scientists gather for 2026 Accelerating Cancer Cures Symposium

Damon Runyon scientists and industry partners gathered on Tuesday, March 24, for the 2026 Accelerating Cancer Cures Research Symposium, hosted by Amgen in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

New DiscoveriesMarch 20, 2026

A hidden weakness in pancreatic cancer cells

Cancer drugs often target a molecule that cancer cells rely on for survival but, crucially, healthy cells do not. When they are first identified, this type of molecule is known as a therapeutic vulnerability—and what previously made the cancer cell especially fit now makes it an easier target.

EventMarch 10, 2026

Join the next Timmerman Traverse for Damon Runyon!

EventFebruary 25, 2026

2026 Timmerman Traverse summits Mt. Kilimanjaro and raises over $1.2M for cancer research

By the time this year’s Timmerman Traverse team of biotech executives and investors embarked upon their journey to Mt. Kilimanjaro, they had already raised $1 million for Damon Runyon’s scientists. So they set their sights—and their altitude—higher. On Sunday, February 15, 2026, the team reached the mountain’s summit (elev. 19,341 feet) and exceeded their fundraising goal, raising over $1.2 million for cancer research.

Honors and AwardsFebruary 23, 2026

Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation awards $3.2M to innovative early-career scientists

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation has announced eight recipients of the 2026 Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award, established to support high-risk, high-reward ideas with the potential to significantly impact the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of cancer. Five extraordinary early-career researchers will receive initial grants of $400,000 over two years, and each will have the opportunity to receive two additional years of funding (for a potential total of $800,000).

New DiscoveriesFebruary 10, 2026

What does that have to do with cancer?

New DiscoveriesJanuary 9, 2026

Pancreatic cancer research leads to treatment for neurological disease

In 2021, Damon Runyon scientists Michael E. Pacold, MD, PhD, Robert S. Banh, PhD, and their colleagues at New York University Langone Health discovered how the enzyme CoQ10 is made, a synthesis pathway that scientists had been seeking for over two decades. CoQ10 is crucial for energy production in cells (which is why it is popular as a dietary supplement, though evidence of the health benefits is scant).