Cancer Research
Despite significant advances in cancer research in recent decades, many patients still lack curative treatment options. Our goal is to accelerate the translation of research to benefit cancer patients through data-driven approaches. We support ambitious projects aimed at developing innovations to fight the deadliest cancers, including lung and pancreatic cancers. We focus on leveraging molecular characterization to understand personalized risk and treatment options and maximizing the potential of both targeted therapies and immunotherapies. Below is a selection of grant partners.
Stanford University
Ash Alizadeh, MD, PhD and Max Diehn, MD, PhD are integrating multiple liquid biopsy analysis techniques to improve strategies for cancer early detection and therapeutic response monitoring in pancreatic and lung cancers.
Lung Cancer Genetics Project
Lung Cancer Genetics Project (in collaboration with 20+ lung cancer patient advocacy groups and 23andMe) is developing a study to learn more about the genetic underpinnings of lung cancer to improve detection, prevention and care, and ultimately, to help advance research toward finding a cure.
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Dr. John Heymach is defining the molecular mechanisms of targeted therapy resistance in lung cancer, using a variety of approaches including induced cellular evolution. The goal of this research is to identify novel vulnerabilities in resistant tumors.
Dana Farber Cancer Institute
Cathy Wu, MD, is pushing forward the latest advances in vaccine technology to activate the body’s own immune system to attack tumors.
Johns Hopkins University
Laura Wood, MD, PhD and Ashley Kiemen, PhD are applying a deep learning-based technique that constructs quantitative 3D maps of tissue to understand how pancreatic cancer develops. They have found a shocking abundance of precursors in normal pancreas and are addressing the question of what factors determine which precursors develop into invasive cancers.