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Today, the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation held the fifth annual Accelerating Cancer Cures Research Symposium. The yearly meeting is designed to encourage collaboration between cancer researchers in industry and their counterparts in academia in order to overcome many of the issues that currently impede progress against cancer. Hosted by Celgene, the meeting included academic researchers from top universities and research institutions as well as scientists from Celgene, Eli Lilly and Company, Genentech, Merck, Pfizer, and Takeda Pharmaceuticals International Co.

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation is deeply saddened by the passing of Dale F. Frey, past Chairman of its Board of Directors, one of its greatest champions and dear friend. Through his vision, passion and relentless dedication to cancer research, he had a lasting impact on human life. Under Dale’s leadership for over 16 years, the Foundation grew exponentially and funded top young scientists in cancer research whose discoveries have dramatically advanced progress against cancer. He led the Foundation with the same wisdom and entrepreneurial spirit he used as the first Chairman of General Electric Asset Management.  In 2010, the Dale F. Frey Award for Breakthrough Scientists was established in his honor to support the most outstanding young cancer researchers in the nation.  Our hearts go out to his wife, Betty Ann, and his children and grandchildren. 

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation named 19 new Damon Runyon Fellows at its fall Fellowship Award Committee review. The recipients of this prestigious, four-year award are outstanding postdoctoral scientists conducting basic and translational cancer research in the laboratories of leading senior investigators across the country. The Committee also named four new recipients of the Damon Runyon-Dale F. Frey Award for Breakthrough Scientists. This award provides additional funding to scientists completing a prestigious Damon Runyon Fellowship Award who have greatly exceeded the Foundation’s highest expectations and are most likely to make paradigm-shifting breakthroughs that transform the way we prevent, diagnose and treat cancer.

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation announced that seven scientists with novel approaches to fighting cancer have been named 2016 recipients of the Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award. The grant of $300,000 over two years is awarded each year to early career scientists whose projects have the potential to significantly impact the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Each awardee will have the opportunity for up to two additional years of funding (up to four years total for $600,000).

On Sunday, November 15, the Runyon 5K drew over 2,700 runners, walkers, cancer survivors, and supporters to Yankee Stadium. Since the first event in 2009, the Runyon 5K has raised more than $3.5 million to support Damon Runyon cancer researchers.

Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovator Feng Zhang is profiled in STAT. He developed the groundbreaking new gene editing technology CRISPR-Cas9.

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation named 16 new Damon Runyon Fellows at its spring Fellowship Award Committee review. The recipients of this prestigious, four-year award are outstanding postdoctoral scientists conducting basic and translational cancer research in the laboratories of leading senior investigators across the country. The Fellowship encourages the nation’s most promising young scientists to pursue careers in cancer research by providing them with independent funding ($208,000 each for basic scientists, $248,000 for physician-scientists) to work on innovative projects.

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation has named four outstanding young scientists as recipients of the prestigious Damon Runyon-Sohn Pediatric Cancer Research Fellowship Award, committing nearly $875,000 to help address a critical shortage of funding for pediatric cancer research.

To help increase the number of physician-scientists, the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation has created a new award, the Damon Runyon Physician-Scientist Training Award, which provides physicians who have earned an MD degree and completed clinical specialty fellowship training the opportunity to gain the research skills and experience they need to become leaders in translational and clinical research. It announced that three scientists with novel approaches to fighting cancer have been named the 2015 recipients of the Damon Runyon Physician-Scientist Training Award.

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation named four new Damon Runyon Clinical Investigators at its spring 2015 Clinical Investigator Award Committee review. The recipients of this prestigious three-year award are outstanding early career physician-scientists conducting patient-oriented cancer research at major research centers under the mentorship of the nation’s leading scientists and clinicians. The Foundation also awarded Continuation Grants to three Damon Runyon Clinical Investigators.