SANTA MONICA, Calif., March 5 /PRNewswire/ -- The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) announced today the recipients of its 2006 Competitive Awards Program. The program granted a total of $6.1 million to 63 research investigators from four counties, of whom 30 were first-time awardees.
The Competitive Awards Program is an innovative venture-style research funding program that provides financial support to high-impact research projects with the greatest potential to improve survival and reduce side effects and death for men with advanced prostate cancer. The awards are granted to projects in a variety of areas including biomarkers, genetics and genomics, nutrition, cancer immunotherapy, new drug discovery and survivorship.
“The PCF Competitive Awards Program concentrates funds entrusted to us by our donors into the most strategic science,” said Stuart Holden, MD, medical director of the PCF. “This year, we received more than 420 applications from 22 countries and were able to provide a record 63 projects a decisive boost in funding.”
With its model of drawing new investigators around the globe to the field and enabling investigators to attract additional significant investment, the Competitive Awards Program has played a unique role in the area of prostate cancer research. To date, more than $81 million has been awarded through the Competitive Awards Program, allowing individual investigators to focus their efforts on discovering new ideas and new pathways for prostate cancer treatment strategies.
“We at the PCF are proud of our role in advancing scientific and medical understanding of this disease and identifying new approaches to defeating it,” said Jonathan W. Simons, MD, chief executive officer and president of the PCF. “The PCF continues to leverage and invest every resource available to advance our mission to end death and suffering from prostate cancer.”
Prostate cancer is the most common non-skin cancer in the United States, striking one in six men. In 2007 alone, more than 218,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer and more than 27,000 men will die of the disease. Baby boomer men are turning 60, bringing increasing numbers of men into the highest-risk zone for the disease. As a result, the number of new cases over the next decade is expected to increase to more than 300,000 annually.
The Prostate Cancer Foundation 2006 Competitive Awards Program recipients are:
Baylor College of Medicine: Naijie Jing, PhD BC Cancer Agency: Yuzhuo Wang, PhD Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center: Mark A. Exley, MSc, PhD; Xuesong Gu, PhD; Towia A. Libermann, PhD Cleveland Clinic: Robert H. Silverman, PhD Columbia University Medical Center: Edward P. Gelmann, MD Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Ronald A. DePinho, MD; Levi A. Garraway, MD, PhD; William C. Hahn, MD, PhD Earle A. Chiles Research Institute: Bernard A. Fox, PhD Hebrew University: Alexander Levitzki, PhD Henry M. Jackson Foundation: Albert Dobi, PhD Indiana University: Jian-Ting Zhang, PhD Jewish General Hospital, a McGill University Teaching Hospital: Michael N. Pollak, MD Johns Hopkins University: Michael A. Carducci, MD; Robert H. Getzenberg, PhD; John T. Isaacs, PhD; Jun O. Liu, PhD; Srinivasan Yegnasubramanian, MD, PhD Massachusetts General Hospital: Matthew R. Smith, MD, PhD Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center: James P. Allison, PhD; Neal Rosen, MD, PhD; Howard I. Scher, MD; Sven Wenske, MD Mount Sinai School of Medicine: John A. Martignetti, MD, PhD Ohio State University: Ching-Shih Chen, PhD Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center: Michael McClelland, PhD University of California, San Diego: Michael G. Rosenfeld, MD University of California, Davis: Christopher P. Evans, MD University of California, Los Angeles: David Heber, MD, PhD; Michael E. Jung, PhD; Owen N. Witte, MD; Lily Wu, MD, PhD University of California, San Francisco: Robert H. Blelloch, MD, PhD; Heike E. Daldrup-Link, MD, PhD; Marc I. Diamond, MD; Timothy P. Quinn, MD; Eric J. Small, MD; Paul Webb, PhD University of Connecticut Health Center: Linda H. Shapiro, PhD University of Illinois: Jianjun Cheng, PhD University of Louisville: La Creis R. Kidd, PhD, MPH University of Michigan: Arul M. Chinnaiyan, MD, PhD; Robert D. Loberg, PhD; Russell S. Taichman, DMD, DMSc; Shaomeng Wang, PhD University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute: Denise S. O’Keefe, PhD University of Regensburg: Christoph A. Klein, MD University of Southern California: Christopher A. Haiman, ScD; Shi-Lung Lin, PhD; Mariana C. Stern, PhD University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center: Sue-Hwa Lin, PhD; Renata Pasqualini, PhD; Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD; Zhengxin Wang, PhD University of Virginia: Michael J. Weber, PhD University of Washington: Alvin Y. Liu, PhD University of Wisconsin, Madison: Wade A. Bushman, MD, PhD Vancouver General Hospital: Martin E. Gleave, MD Vanderbilt University Medical Center: Robert J. Matusik, PhD Weill Medical College of Cornell University: Ashutosh K. Tewari, MD, MCH Yale University: Alan Garen, PhD Information on each award can be found at http://www.prostatecancerfoundation.org/2006competitive_awards.
About the Prostate Cancer Foundation
The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) is the world’s largest philanthropic source of support for prostate cancer research. Founded in 1993, the PCF has raised more than $288 million and provided funding for prostate cancer research to more than 1,200 investigators at 100 institutions worldwide. The PCF has a simple, yet urgent goal: to find better treatments and a cure for recurrent prostate cancer. For more information, visit http://www.prostatecancerfoundation.org.
Contacts: Katie Lambe, PCF, 310.570.4713 klambe@prostatecancerfoundation.org Shira Berman, PCF, 310.570.4693 sberman@prostatecancerfoundation.org
Prostate Cancer Foundation
CONTACT: Katie Lambe, +1-310-570-4713,klambe@prostatecancerfoundation.org, or Shira Berman, +1-310-570-4693,sberman@prostatecancerfoundation.org, both of Prostate Cancer Foundation
