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The tumor, once an indistinct mass of heterogeneous cells, is gaining single-cell resolution. Until recently, even distinguishing between healthy cells and malignant cells within a tumor sample presented a challenge.
Founded in 1908, The American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious medical honor societies. Each year, the ASCI Council elects up to eighty new members from hundreds of physician-scientists nominated on the basis of “outstanding scholarly achievement.” Among those chosen this year were five Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator alumni and one of our current sponsors. They will be formally inducted into the Society on April 8, 2021.
Nearly all human cancers, and particularly blood cancers, involve dysregulated gene expression – the wrong genes are switched on or the right ones are switched off. The molecule responsible for switching genes on and off is called a transcription factor. Identifying which transcription factor is misbehaving and how is often the key to developing effective cancer treatments.
A new study demonstrates the staying power of the immune response generated by a personalized cancer vaccine called NeoVax, which works by targeting specific proteins on each patient’s tumor cells to activate the body's immune system against the cancer.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult forms of cancer to treat effectively. Standard courses of chemotherapy drugs often come up short for patients, leading to a dismal 5-year relative survival rate of just 10%. And while the past few years’ transformative breakthroughs in immunotherapy have drastically improved the prognosis for many patients diagnosed with other forms of cancer, most pancreatic cancers have proved frustratingly resistant to immunotherapy alone.
The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation has named 15 new Damon Runyon Fellows at its fall Fellowship Award Committee review. The Fellowship encourages the nation's most promising young scientists to pursue careers in cancer research by providing them with independent funding ($231,000 total) to work on innovative projects. The Committee also named five new recipients of the Damon Runyon-Dale F. Frey Award for Breakthrough Scientists, which provides additional funding to scientists completing a Damon Runyon Fellowship Award who have greatly exceeded our highest expectations.
This year, thirteen Damon Runyon alumni were chosen as American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellows in honor of their invaluable contributions to science and technology.
The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation announced that seven scientists with novel approaches to fighting cancer have been named 2021 recipients of the Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award. Five initial grants of $400,000 over two years were awarded to early career scientists whose projects have the potential to significantly impact the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
Our scientists remain undaunted in their important cancer research, despite the challenges and precautionary measures required to safely work in their laboratories this year. In case you missed them, here are just a few of the exciting discoveries made by Damon Runyon researchers in 2020.
To understand all the genetic alterations driving melanoma, Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Eliezer Van Allen, MD, and his colleagues at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have assembled the largest molecular dataset on this disease and used it to uncover new details that may help in diagnosis and treatment.
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