Lung Cancer Research Foundation Awards $1.6 Million in Research Grants

The Lung Cancer Research Foundation (LCRF) announced the recipients of its 2017 Scientific Grant Program Awards at the Twelfth Annual Lung Cancer Awareness Luncheon, held on Wednesday, November 1, at The Pierre in New York City. LCRF awarded $1.6 million in research grants to 10 investigators.

Each year LCRF funds projects across the spectrum of basic, clinical and translational research through its Scientific Grant Program. Research topics include improving our understanding of lung cancer biology, prevention and screening for early detection, identification of new biomarkers and the development of targeted therapies, development of more effective and safer therapies, and supportive care and quality of care/outcomes research.

"Lung cancer remains the number one cause of cancer death worldwide, yet it is also the most underfunded cancer," said Nancy M. Sanford, Executive Director, LCRF. "We are proud to be the largest charity dedicated to funding lung cancer research and are confident that LCRF's investigators are moving the needle in the fight against this deadly disease."

Among the 2017 Scientific Grant Program Awards are the prestigious Scientific Merit Award and William C. Rippe Award for Distinguished Research in Lung Cancer. The Scientific Merit Award is presented to the investigator whose proposal was selected for outstanding overall merit by LCRF's Scientific Advisory Board. This year's recipient is Nikhil Joshi, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Immunobiology at Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Joshi's research project is titled, "Investigating anti-tumor T cell function in autochthonous models of lung adenocarcinoma."

LCRF's William C. Rippe Award for Distinguished Research in Lung Cancer is presented to the investigator whose proposal not only demonstrated exceptional scientific merit but also exemplified an enduring commitment to making an impact in the field of lung cancer research. Christopher Maher, PhD, Assistant Professor within the Department of Medicine and Assistant Director of the McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University, was named as this year's recipient. His research project is titled "Understanding the regulatory roles of long non-coding RNAs in lung cancer."

In 2017, LCRF received 172 applications to the Scientific Grant Program, representing 103 institutions from sixteen countries. LCRF grants provide up to $150,000 over a two-year funding period. The 2017 awardees include:

• Ashley Bakhoum, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center: Targeting metastasis-initiating cells in lung adenocarcinoma
• Amy Davidoff, PhD, Yale University: Patterns of palliative care and concurrent therapy for lung cancer at end-of-life: implications for quality
• Benjamin Drapkin, MD, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital: Biomarker discovery for combination therapy with olaparib and temozolomide using patient-derived xenograft models of small cell lung cancer
• Marcus Goncalves, MD, PhD, Weill Cornell Medical College: Molecular mechanisms of cachexia in non-small cell lung cancer
• Haichuan Hu, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital: Targeting the tumor microenvironment to enhance non-small cell lung cancer targeted therapy
• Nikhil Joshi, PhD, Yale University: Investigating anti-tumor T cell function in autochthonous models of lung adenocarcinoma
• Christopher Maher, PhD, Washington University: Understanding the regulatory roles of long non-coding RNAs in lung cancer
• Triparna Sen, PhD, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center: Investigating the role of DNA damage repair inhibition in enhancing anti-tumor immunity in small cell lung cancer
• Alison Taylor, PhD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Genome engineering to generate models of chromosome arm-level aneuploidies in lung cancer
• Hua Zhang, MD, PhD, New York University School of Medicine: Enhancing anti-PD-1 immunotherapy with CDK7 inhibition in small cell lung cancer