Susan G. Komen for the Cure Announces Nearly $77 Million in Grants; Significant Step in Goal to Invest another $1 Billion in 10 Years
Expanded, Strategically Focused Portfolio Strengthens Mission, Places Special Emphasis on Fellowships, Team Science Approaches
DALLAS – April 16, 2007 – Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the leader in the global breast cancer movement, has announced the awarding of nearly $77 million in scientific research grants, an amount representing a 36 percent increase over last year’s awarding of $55 million through its national Research Grants and Awards Program.
The investment is a significant milestone toward Komen for the Cure’s goal of investing another $1 billion in breast cancer research and community outreach programs in the next decade. The organization has already invested $1 billion in the effort, making it the world’s largest source of funds dedicated to ending breast cancer forever behind the U.S. government. Komen raises money to fund its research grants through a variety of sources, including the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure Series®, the Breast Cancer 3-Day and other fundraising activities by its 125 Affiliates, more than 130 corporate sponsor programs and generous donors.
Komen for the Cure’s 2006 grants portfolio was expanded to support the organization’s new strategic direction and positions Komen solidly for increased strength and effectiveness in the global breast cancer advocacy community.
“Our recent brand change and our renewed commitment to save lives and end breast cancer forever by empowering people, ensuring quality care for all and energizing science to find the cures signal a new spirit of determination at Susan G. Komen for the Cure,” said Hala Moddelmog, president and CEO. “This slate of grants is proof that we are putting muscle behind our promise and delivering on our pledge to infuse more dollars in the research community. We are thinking differently and sharpening our granting processes to ensure that we are making the greatest impact with the funds we invest.”
Focused Areas of Study Debuts
Komen continues to fund leading-edge, investigator-initiated breast cancer research as a hallmark of its Research Grants and Awards Program. This year, the organization also added several new grant funding categories, including higher-dollar impact grants that fall under the category of Focused Areas of Study. Komen initially planned to fund up to $13 million worth of grants in four specific focus areas, including ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), experimental model systems, biomarker identification and validation, and environmental research methods. Strong response to the call for applications prompted Komen to make an additional infusion of up to $7 million, bringing the potential funding total for the inaugural year of its Focused Areas of Study category’s existence to $20 million.
Funding More Fellowships
“Susan G. Komen for the Cure believes that discovering the cures means nurturing the talent necessary to make that happen. This year, we increased our fellowship funding in order to recruit and retain researchers and scientists whose vision and creativity can help us fulfill our mission to end breast cancer forever,” said Chandini Portteus, director of grants for Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
Growth within Komen for the Cure’s well respected Interdisciplinary Breast Fellowship program was 100 percent this year, with an increase in the participation of leading health institutions from four last year to eight. Komen has expanded Fellowships funding with the introduction this year of the Life Sciences Research Fellowship, a highly competitive postdoctoral program that allows Komen to sponsor three-year fellowships for top-ranked applicants whose research aligns with its mission. Funding will support the work of two individuals who will be the first Susan G. Komen/Life Science Research Foundation Fellows.
Support for Team Science, Translational Approaches
Finding ways to take or ‘translate’ new laboratory advancements from the bench to the bedsides of patients who can directly benefit from them is a growing focus of top scientists and patient advocacy groups around the world.
“The current funding climate is a strong indicator for robust investment in team approaches and collaborative efforts that can speed discoveries and get them into clinical settings, where they can be of benefit to patients more quickly,” said Portteus.
At the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual conference April 14 – 18, 2007, Komen and AACR announced a collaboration that focuses on three mutual priorities in cancer: finding ways to prevent cancer; addressing cancer disparities and ensuring ethical, standardized tissue sample storage and access for patients and researchers. Komen has granted more than $2 million to AACR to apply its scientific expertise and its ability to translate scientific concepts to lay-friendly language in order to build public understanding and appreciation of these three key cancer issues.
Komen has awarded $1 million to Indiana University to create a sustained bio-repository, or tissue bank, for primarily non-malignant breast tissue and bio-molecules extracted from body fluids. With funding from Komen, Indiana University is addressing a critical barrier to research that was identified by the Breast Cancer Progress Review Group; namely, the creation of a dedicated repository for the collection and safekeeping of normal breast tissue that is critical for the advancement of breast cancer research.
A Komen grant of $950,000 has been awarded to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to address cancer screening barriers and to issue a review of international approaches for preventing and controlling breast cancer in low-resource regions of the developing world.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers received $210,000 from Komen to develop gene therapy that enables modified immune cells to attack and kill cancer in patients with metastatic disease.
Komen will also provide $2.5 million in funding over two years to fuel the collaborative efforts of The Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium, a group of 14 leading academic centers in the U.S. with the resources, expertise and talent to conduct collaborative, early-phase clinical trials focused on novel agents that target cell pathways involved in the causation and/or the progression of breast cancer. Each trial will be designed to maximize the amount of information gained from each intervention. Komen funding is essential to build the infrastructure for this unprecedented collaboration and to provide staff and institutional support to the 14 participating centers who share the commitment to help speed new discoveries to patients.
A grant of $1.2 million from Komen is helping Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital design and implement an integrated breast cancer tracking and reminder system which sends computerized telephone messages to women, in their preferred language, to remind them to make, then keep, appointments for screening mammograms.
Learn more about Komen’s national Research Grants and Awards Program.