Donations Are Fueling New Research at Roswell Park

Five promising preliminary cancer research projects at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center received a total of $500,000 in grants from the Roswell Park Alliance Foundation, the 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that raises funds and manages all donations made to Roswell Park.

The grants went to researchers who received the funds following a competitive peer-review process that is led by the Foundation. The researchers submitted their project proposals to the Alliance Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), made up of objective Roswell Park scientists, who scored the applications and selected the projects that would receive funding based on their potential to find cancer cures and save lives.

The fall 2018 request for applications solicited and received 30 applications, five of which were selected by the SAC to receive grant awards, totaling $500,000:

1. Michael Feigin, PhD, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, received $100,000 for his project “Alternative polyadenylation as a driver of pancreatic cancer”.
2. Irwin Gelman, PhD, Department of Genetics and Genomics, received $100,000 for his project “Drug susceptibilities in fusion oncogene-driven pediatric sarcomas”.
3. Fumito Ito, MD, PhD, Department of Surgical Oncology and Center for Immunotherapy received $100,000 for his project “Clinically applicable generation of tumor-specific T cells from human induced pluripotent stem cells”.
4. Jianmin Zhang, PhD, Department of Genetics and Genomics, received $100,000 for his project "Role of CAMK1D in metastatic breast cancer”.
5. Jia Fang, PhD, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, received $100,000 for his project “SETDB1-mediated tumor suppressor gene silencing in lung cancer”.

All five projects are made possible through the generosity of Roswell Park supporters, including individual gifts and donations to Alliance Foundation programs and events like The Ride For Roswell, Goin' Bald for Bucks, Empire State Ride and Team Roswell. To learn more about the Roswell Park Alliance Foundation and the research and quality-life-programs it supports at Roswell Park, visit www.roswellpark.org/giving.