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New DiscoveriesAugust 19, 2026

FDA approves new oral treatment for non-small-cell lung cancer

Over twenty years ago, scientists at the Broad Institute, including Matthew Meyerson, MD, PhD (Damon Runyon Fellow ’95-’98), William R. Sellers, MD (Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator '01-'05, Board Member), and Todd R. Golub, MD (Innovation Award Committee Member, Board Member), set out to understand why some patients with lung cancer did not respond to existing treatments. Now, these decades of work have paid off: the FDA has approved a new oral treatment for non-small-cell lung cancer, the most common form of the disease.

New DiscoveriesAugust 12, 2026

Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation awards $4.2 million to exceptional early-career scientists

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation has named 14 new Damon Runyon Fellows, brilliant postdoctoral scientists conducting basic and translational cancer research in the laboratories of leading senior investigators. This prestigious Fellowship encourages the nation's most promising young scientists to pursue careers in cancer research by providing them with independent funding ($300,000 total over four years) to investigate cancer causes, mechanisms, therapies, and prevention.

Honors and AwardsAugust 7, 2026

A tribute to pioneering cancer researcher Maura Gillison, MD, PhD

We are deeply saddened by the passing of Maura L. Gillison, MD, PhD, on June 21.

Honors and AwardsJuly 23, 2026

Damon Runyon announces newest class of SPARK Scholars

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation has named the 2026 cohort of the Damon Runyon Scholars Program for Advancing Research and Knowledge (SPARK), a one-year cancer research internship for post-baccalaureate scholars. Launched in 2023, the program provides promising young talent with rigorous scientific training and a network of mentors and peers to support their next steps into graduate school and beyond.

Honors and AwardsJuly 7, 2026

Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation invests nearly $1.4 million to support physician-scientists

Three exceptional young clinicians with novel ideas about cancer treatment have been named the 2026 recipients of the Damon Runyon Physician-Scientist Training Award. This award provides physicians who have completed clinical specialty fellowship training with the opportunity to become leaders in translational and clinical research. The awardees are selected through a highly competitive and rigorous process by a committee of leading cancer researchers who are themselves physician-scientists.

New DiscoveriesJuly 6, 2026

Uncovering the true origins of small cell lung cancer

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a rare but aggressive form of lung cancer that, for years, scientists believed arose from specialized lung cells called neuroendocrine cells. But new research from former Damon Runyon Innovators Trudy G. Oliver, PhD, and Elvin Wagenblast, PhD, and their colleagues overturns this long-standing assumption.

EventJune 23, 2026

Damon Runyon honors Matthew G. Vander Heiden, MD, PhD, at 80th Anniversary Dinner

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation held its 80th Anniversary Dinner at the Metropolitan Club in New York on Thursday, June 4, 2026. The event raised nearly $1 million to support exceptional young scientists conducting high-risk, high-reward cancer research.

Honors and AwardsMay 29, 2026

Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation names three new Quantitative Biology Fellows

Damon Runyon has awarded Quantitative Biology Fellowships to three outstanding young scientists applying computational approaches to persistent biological questions. Their projects will use machine learning, spatialomics, advanced network modeling, and other technologies to better understand breast cancer risk, improve response to immunotherapies, and identify new chromosomal drivers of cancer. Each postdoctoral scientist will receive independent funding ($240,000 total) to train under the joint mentorship of an established computational scientist and a cancer biologist.

New DiscoveriesMay 26, 2026

Cellular pathway suggests mechanism of chemotherapy resistance

Purines, namely adenine and guanine, are one of two chemical compounds that cells use to make the building blocks of DNA and RNA. (The other are pyrimidines, cytosine and thymine.) Cells can make purines in two ways: by building them from scratch, known as “de novo purine biosynthesis,” or by recycling them from existing molecules, known as “purine salvage.” When the salvage pathway is active, it signals to the cell to slow down the biosynthesis pathway so that the cell does not make too many purines. Until recently, scientists did not fully understand how this slowdown happens.

New DiscoveriesMay 4, 2026

Tracing a pediatric cancer to its origins

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a cancer of the soft tissue that predominantly affects children. Under the microscope, these tumors resemble developing skeletal muscle, but they appear in parts of the body where skeletal muscle does not exist, such as the bladder and salivary gland. For years, this has raised two fundamental questions: what types of cells give rise to RMS, and why does this cancer mainly occur in children?