PDA Southeast Chapter’s Post

We're thrilled to share that Cancer Tech Accelerator has selected 52 teams to participate in its 2024 cohort, including researchers from universities and cancer research institutions across the UK and internationally. For these 52 teams, plus a further eight highly promising individuals who will be given a chance to form teams at a later date, this marks the start of a ten-month journey, equipping them with the entrepreneurial skills and connections necessary to spin out their research into a commercial entity. Now in its third year of delivery, Cancer Tech Accelerator serves as a catalyst for groundbreaking advancements in oncology. From the first two cohorts, numerous participants have secured substantial funding and gone on to forge exciting partnerships with industry. Cancer Tech Accelerator plays a vital role in allowing teams to develop the commercial potential of their research by directly awarding non-dilutive grants of up to £70,000 to a select number of teams. This year, there will be a special focus on supporting projects in childhood cancers, blood cancer, and brain tumours, in addition to other areas. Thanks to our partners and supporters Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Cancer Research Horizons The Brain Tumour Charity Blood Cancer UK LifeArc HGF Limited and Roche for their continued support of Cancer Tech Accelerator. #cancerresearch #medtech #spinout #research #founders #accelerator #beatcancer #oncology #innovation https://lnkd.in/ehzQpXTH

A Journey to Building the Cancer Research Hub in Tanzania I have received a grant from Global Colon Cancer Association to support the development of the colorectal cancer patients navigation tool in Northern Tanzania to be worked under Kilimanjaro Clinical Research Institute (KCRI). Navigation tools defined as " Model of care whose goal is to reduce a health disparity in a particular community" are very important yet scarce toolkits needed among many cancer types patients. It is difficult to have one all fit navigation toolkit due to different cultural practices, changing needs, environments etc. The first patient navigation toolkit was developed by Dr Harold Freeman in 1990 aimed at reducing the disparities among breast cancer patients whose majority were Black African-American which recorded the success of improving five year mortality rates from 39% to 70% and late stage diagnosis from 50% to 20%. This shows in fighting cancer where disparities are the highest contributor to mortality rates, and late diagnosis Patient Navigation toolkit are key cornerstone to the fight. It comes at the right time in Tanzania where over the past decade we have witnessed a six fold increase in colorectal cancer cases with over 90% presenting in late stages. This is a very huge step for me to fight cancer disparities and grow the Cancer Research Hub. I urge other cancer organisations to join the efforts and collaborate on how we can end disparities in cancer. Danny Burke ecancer Julie S. Torode Fredrick Chite Asirwa MD FASCO American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation sharon Kapambwe Valerie McCormack ESMO - European Society for Medical Oncology AORTIC- Africa AACR Journals American Cancer Society American Association for Cancer Research Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) IARC - International Agency for Research on Cancer / World Health Organization Prevent Cancer Foundation Cancer Research UK (CRUK) The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research The Breast Cancer Research Foundation Andrea Macaluso

We're thrilled to share that Cancer Tech Accelerator has selected 52 teams to participate in its 2024 cohort, including researchers from universities and cancer research institutions across the UK and internationally. For these 52 teams, plus a further eight highly promising individuals who will be given a chance to form teams at a later date, this marks the start of a ten-month journey, equipping them with the entrepreneurial skills and connections necessary to spin out their research into a commercial entity. Now in its third year of delivery, Cancer Tech Accelerator serves as a catalyst for groundbreaking advancements in oncology. From the first two cohorts, numerous participants have secured substantial funding and gone on to forge exciting partnerships with industry. Cancer Tech Accelerator plays a vital role in allowing teams to develop the commercial potential of their research by directly awarding non-dilutive grants of up to £70,000 to a select number of teams. This year, there will be a special focus on supporting projects in childhood cancers, blood cancer, and brain tumours, in addition to other areas. Thanks to our partners and supporters Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Cancer Research Horizons The Brain Tumour Charity Blood Cancer UK LifeArc HGF Limited and Roche for their continued support of Cancer Tech Accelerator. #cancerresearch #medtech #spinout #research #founders #accelerator #beatcancer #oncology #innovation https://lnkd.in/ehzQpXTH

Are you a young investigator passionate about cancer research? The Fanconi Cancer Foundation is thrilled to announce the Fanconi Cancer Foundation-AACR NextGen Grant for Transformative Cancer Research! This grant, in partnership with the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), is designed to fuel groundbreaking research in Fanconi anemia (FA) and its associated cancers. FA is a rare genetic disease with profound implications, including a high risk of solid tumors and leukemia. With advancements in stem cell transplants, individuals with FA are now recognized as having a predisposition to cancer, making research in this area more critical than ever. We're offering $450,000 over three years for transformative research projects exploring FA-associated cancers. Whether you're currently working in the FA field or have experience in other areas of cancer or biomedical research with an interest in studying FA-associated cancers, we invite you to apply and be part of this vital research endeavor. Your groundbreaking research could catalyze significant scientific discoveries and help you gain scientific independence. Plus, it's an opportunity to contribute to our understanding of FA-associated cancers, potentially informing the development of novel diagnostics, preventive strategies, and therapies for individuals with FA and beyond. Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to make a difference in the lives of those affected by FA-associated cancers. Visit the link to learn more and apply today! #FanconiCancerFoundation #AACR #NextGenGrant #CancerResearch #TransformativeScience #FAAwareness #ResearchOpportunity

𝙀𝙍𝘾 𝘼𝙙𝙫𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙙 𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙥𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙘 𝙘𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙧 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙘𝙝 Congratulations to Jai Prakash, a researcher at the TechMed Centre of the University of Twente, on receiving an ERC Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC)! Prakash is one of the 255 outstanding research leaders in Europe to be awarded an ERC Advanced grant. He receives 2.5 million euros for research on understanding barriers causing treatment failures for pancreatic cancer and developing new treatments against this deadly cancer. Every year, an increasing amount of people get pancreatic cancer. In 2020, nearly 496,000 people were diagnosed with the disease worldwide and 466000 died. It is a deadly disease; after five years, less than eight per cent of patients are still alive. The tumours are hard to diagnose and when found are then extremely difficult to effectively treat. Even one of the most advanced cancer therapeutics, cancer immunotherapy, has completely failed against this cancer. Read the full article on our website to learn more about his research. https://lnkd.in/eiN6v8wS TechMed Centre - University of Twente #utwente

We are thrilled to announce that thanks to the year-end generosity of friends like you, we have funded an additional 2023-24 Research Professorship Grant for cancer research to Prof. Yinon Ben-Neriah. Yinon Ben-Neriah, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Immunology and Cancer Research at the Hebrew University and an Adjunct Professor of Immunology at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His focus is on blood cancers, particularly leukemia, and his research focuses on dissecting the abnormal cellular responses underlying cancer development and developing therapeutic measures for correcting those responses. About the research: Among the most aggressive and challenging types of cancer, acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is considered a disease with unmet therapy needs. The 5-year mean survival of AML patients is only 25%. The Ben-Neriah team developed an experimental drug that simultaneously attacks many leukemic proteins, making it difficult for the leukemia cells to evade the therapy. The Phase 1 trial has been successfully completed at three major U.S. cancer centers. Prof. Ben-Neriah hopes to further improve and expand the drug's anti-leukemic effect by combining it with other drugs, and to prevent the emergence of therapy resistance, which is highly common in cancer therapy. The total number of grants that ICRF is funding for 2023-24 is now 83 grants valued at $5,500,000. All of this is made possible by our generous donors. Please support these and other grant recipients as they continue to carry on the fight against cancer and move research forward: https://lnkd.in/ekQftJ66

Our team at the Rare Cancer Research Foundation is incredibly proud of our progress in 2023. As we look to 2024, we want to share with you, our community of partners and supporters, what’s ahead for our work and invite you to join us in this effort. First, I’ll share some of the work that you've made possible. The Rare Cancer Research Foundation launched Pattern.org in 2017 to enable rare cancer patients to donate their tumor tissue directly from surgery to researchers who will study their disease and open source any generated models and data. Pattern.org continues to be incredibly unique: from the ability to work with patients being treated at any hospital in the country, regardless of the type of rare cancer they have, to delivering tissue to researchers within 17 hours, when it is most useful for research. We’ve successfully delivered tissue from patients being seen at over 120 hospitals and this work has resulted in over 58 generated rare cancer models providing countless research opportunities and enabling scientific discoveries. We are just getting started, and we’d love to invite you to support this initiative: https://lnkd.in/gGyApVT2. 2024 will be a transformative year as we expand our offerings in two priority areas. We are building a patient-directed custodial biobank and other tools that will give patients more data, control and information in making the best treatment decisions and we are creating the Pattern Data Commons - a shared data platform with clinical annotation that will unify the rare cancer community’s data for scientific discovery and rapid progress. Whether it’s omics, AI and machine learning, or breakthrough therapies, we will have the tools and the shared platform to make scientific discoveries and progress toward better treatments and cures. This progress is being driven by rare cancer patients themselves. We have built a network of over 300 patient advocacy organizations, all of whom are working tirelessly to connect their patients to resources, support and hope. We are working together to create a future where every rare cancer patient has options, proven treatments, and promise for better outcomes. We appreciate your partnership, support and wish you the happiest of holidays.

City of Hope®, one of the largest and most advanced cancer research and treatment organizations in the U.S. and ranked among the nation’s top 5 cancer centers by U.S. News & World Report, has received a historic $150 million gift from entrepreneurs and philanthropists A. Emmet Stephenson Jr. and his daughter Tessa Stephenson Brand to immediately fund pancreatic cancer research. The centerpiece of this gift is the $1 million Stephenson Prize, one of the largest privately funded awards for scientific investigation, which will be awarded annually to a leading scientist or team making the most promising advancements in pancreatic cancer research, treatment and cures. The Stephensons’ investment is in honor of Toni Stephenson, loving wife and mother who, after surviving lymphoma, passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2020. Emmet and Toni met in kindergarten and were happily married for nearly 53 years. “We want to ignite interest and encourage pancreatic cancer research worldwide. We know that cancer discoveries require significant funding, which is why Tessa and I believe multiple elements of this gift will make a difference in fighting this terrible disease,” said A. Emmet Stephenson Jr. “This initiative is a purposeful investment to spur ingenuity and ensure that the most promising advances move forward as fast as possible. We believe City of Hope is an excellent partner for this program to facilitate lifesaving work.” “The Stephensons are entrepreneurs who believe in groundbreaking innovation, and City of Hope is a pioneer driving transformational change in cancer care. We are honored to receive their visionary gift, the single largest in City of Hope’s 111-year history,” said Robert Stone, CEO of City of Hope and the Helen and Morgan Chu Chief Executive Officer Distinguished Chair. “It is evidence that City of Hope is best positioned to catalyze collaboration among the nation’s top scientific minds, disrupting traditional research models and accelerating breakthroughs that ultimately lead to cures.”   “The Stephenson Prize is a unique and important opportunity for scientists and physician investigators to work with each other and with like-minded research teams on the common goal of advancing care and treatment options for people with pancreatic cancer,” said Daniel D. Von Hoff, M.D., a pioneer and world leader in translational medicine and distinguished professor in the Molecular Medicine Division at Translational Genomics Research Institute, part of City of Hope. “The Stephensons’ generosity is a shining example of how unconventional and forward-thinking philanthropists can push lifesaving medicine to new heights, and the vital role philanthropy plays in powering cancer discoveries that are saving lives,” said Kristin Bertell, chief philanthropy officer at City of Hope. “This family’s loss became an inspiration for hope, and we are honored they chose us as a partner to realize their vision.” #philanthropy #cancerresearch #CityOfHope 

Many thanks to KWF Kankerbestrijding for granting our project on "Innovative B-cell based immunotherapy for the treatment of liver cancer". Liver cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment in the last decade, and it remains an active area of research for many malignancies including liver cancer. Unfortunately, only a subset of patients benefits from the current therapies. In this innovative project, together with André Boonstra (Erasmus MC) and Bianca Blom (Amsterdam UMC), VYCAP and Kling Biotherapeutics, we will develop B-cell based immunotherapies against liver cancer. We believe, with the success of this project, we will enter into a new era where reprogramming of patient’s B cells with the ability to produce engineered (B-cell) therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (TAbs) will open a next-generation and personalized treatment for cancer. @ https://lnkd.in/eMV67rx9 #KWF #UT #personalizeddiagnosticsandtherapeutics #TechMed #livercancer #immunotherapies #AmsterdamUMC #ErasmusMC #VyCAP #KlingBioTherapeutics