The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Alexander and Margaret Stewart Trust have named Damon Runyon-Dale F. Frey Breakthrough Scientist Shruti Naik, PhD, and Former Damon Runyon Fellow Jihye Yun, PhD, as part of the 2020 class of the Pew-Stewart Scholars Program for Cancer Research. 

Damon Runyon prides itself on having an accomplished Board of Directors comprised of individuals who passionately believe that supporting the best young minds in cancer research will lead to a cure. We welcome Nat Turner and Judy Swanson to our Board this year. 

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation has named four new Damon Runyon Clinical Investigators. The recipients of this prestigious three-year award are outstanding early career physician-scientists conducting patient-oriented cancer studies at major research centers around the country.

Ishmeal Boles, like so many others, associated lung cancer with smoking. As a nonsmoker and non-drinker with a healthy lifestyle, this was the last diagnosis he suspected when he began to feel tired and short of breath at work. 

We reached out to our Damon Runyon current awardees, alumni, and committee members last week with the following message. We are sharing this message with the public because science is not insulated from the outside world and has always reflected the priorities and prejudices of the society it resides in. Racism and bias are not relics of a less enlightened past, but living, active forces that hold us back from scientific breakthroughs.

Damon Runyon Alumnus Ardem Patapoutian, PhD, of Scripps Research, was awarded the 2020 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience for his breakthrough discovery of sensory receptors that respond to pressure. This award recognizes outstanding achievement in advancing our knowledge and understanding of the brain and nervous system.

Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovator Rushika M. Perera, PhD, at University of the California, San Francisco, and colleagues at NYU Grossman School of Medicine have discovered that pancreatic cancer cells can appropriate an internal waste removal process to dispose of tags (MHC-1) on their surfaces which trigger the immune system to destroy tumors.

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation has named five brilliant doctors with novel approaches to fighting cancer as Damon Runyon Physician-Scientists. Grants totaling $2.3 million will provide them the opportunity to gain skills and experience in translational and clinical research.

Since COVID-19 cases escalated to pandemic levels worldwide, Damon Runyon scientists are contributing to the unprecedented global effort to stop the disease by investigating how this specific coronavirus enters human cells, developing more efficient testing and searching for a treatment. 

The first class of Damon Runyon Quantitative Biology Fellowship Awardees launched their research in novel directions that may lead to the next breakthroughs in cancer research. Nine brilliant young scientists will apply their quantitative skills to design innovative experiments and interpret massive data sets that may help solve important biological and clinical problems.