The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation is thrilled to announce the launch of the Damon Runyon Scholars Program for Advancing Research and Knowledge (SPARK), a one-year intensive cancer research internship program for post-baccalaureate students who come from backgrounds underrepresented in the sciences.

Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a non-invasive form of breast cancer found in the milk ducts, is a precursor to invasive breast cancer, but until recently, its progression has remained enigmatic. This is partly because standard methods of preserving tissue—as formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples—have made single-cell genetic analysis difficult. 

The National Academy of Medicine provides independent, evidence-based scientific advice to address national and global health challenges. Membership is considered to be one of the highest honors in the medical field and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. This year, five Damon Runyon alumni were nominated for membership, bringing the total number of Damon Runyon scientists in the organization to 46.

Each year, the Damon Runyon-Jake Wetchler Award for Pediatric Innovation is given to a third-year Damon Runyon Fellow whose research has the greatest potential to impact the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of pediatric cancer. This year, the award recognizes the work of Qinheng Zheng, PhD, a Damon Runyon-Connie and Bob Lurie Fellow at the University of California, San Francisco.

More than 90% of the world’s population has been infected with Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), and for most people, the infection is mild and passes in childhood. But for some, the virus persists in the body and increases the risk of certain cancers, including lymphoma, leukemia, and head and neck cancer. How exactly EBV leads to cancer, however, has until now remained poorly understood.

A team of scientists at Yale University School of Medicine, led by former Damon Runyon Innovator Jason M. Sheltzer, PhD, recently cracked a century-old scientific mystery: the role of aneuploidy, or abnormal chromosome number, in driving cancer. As far back as the 19^th century, scientists looking under a microscope noticed that when cancer cells divide, the chromosomes sometimes split unequally, resulting in two aneuploid daughter cells.

Glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer, is notoriously difficult to treat. Once arisen, the tumor rapidly invades healthy brain tissue, making removal by surgery nearly impossible and chemotherapy or radiation therapy success short-lived. Even immunotherapy drugs, increasingly relied upon when first lines of treatment fail, have proven ineffective, leaving glioblastoma patients with very few options. But this may change soon.

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation is delighted to announce a new partnership with the Timmerman Traverse, an adventurous initiative that brings leaders and investors in biotech together to scale extraordinary physical—and philanthropic—heights. Since 2017, biotech journalist and mountaineer Luke Timmerman has led expeditions up Mt. Everest, the Matterhorn, and the seven highest peaks in the White Mountains, raising over $7.6 million to combat cancer and poverty. Participants in the 2024 Timmerman Traverse will summit Mt.

In 2018, the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) established the FNIH Trailblazer Prize for Clinician-Scientists to recognize “the outstanding contributions of early career clinician-scientists” whose research “translates basic scientific observations into new paradigm-shifting approaches for diagnosing, preventing, treating or curing disease.”

More than 1,200 people from the five boroughs of New York City and beyond took part in the Runyon 5K at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, July 29, 2023, to support the nation’s brightest young scientists as they pursue breakthroughs in cancer research. Since the inaugural event in 2009, the Runyon 5K has raised more than $6 million.