Paul
A. Marks, MD, Scientific Advisory Board Chairman
The American-Italian Cancer Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board identified two exceptionally promising pancreatic cancer research projects from a field of 27 highly qualified applicants in conjunction with the Pancreatic Cancer Research Initiative. Giulio Draetta, MD, PhD, Presidential Scholar and Deputy Director for Science in the Center for Applied Cancer Science at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute will be working on the project Identification of Novel Drug Targets in Pancreatic Cancer with William C. Hahn, MD, PhD and Massimo Loda, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Giovanni Tonon, MD, PhD, San Raffaele del Monte Tabor Scientific Institute, Milan; and Chiara Conti, PhD, Belfer Institute. Mark Bloomston, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery, The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, is pursuing MicroRNAs as predictors of (pre)malignant phenotype in cystic neoplasms of the pancreas, with Aldo Scarpa, MD, PhD, University of Verona and Carlo M. Croce, MD, The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. We are grateful to pancreatic cancer experts Claudio Bassi, MD; Craig D. Logsdon, PhD; Gloria M. Petersen, PhD; Margaret A. Tempero, MD; and Daniel Von Hoff, MD, FACP for assisting us in the decision-making process.
Thirteen first-year and seven second-year International Post-Doctoral Research Fellows have been awarded stipends for 2009-10. These talented young scientists are pursuing advanced study and research under the guidance of seasoned mentors in the United States and the United Kingdom.
The winners of The Alexander Bodini Foundation Prize for Scientific Excellence in Medicine—George D. Demetri, MD and Brian J. Druker, MD—were recommended for their remarkable achievements related to the Therapeutic Development of Kinase Inhibitors and the Novartis drug, Gleevec®. Their groundbreaking work has helped us usher in a new era of understanding in cancer research.
We are a global community concerned with eradicating cancer, and we have made real progress. Now is the time to accelerate progress through increased research activity worldwide. If the global cancer research community is adequately funded, we will shorten the time period to cancer’s elimination. This noble goal will benefit all of mankind.
