The Kirk A. and Dorothy P. Landon Foundation, in conjunction with the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), has created two new funding opportunities for scientists working on cancer research.

The Landon Foundation-AACR INNOVATOR Award for Cancer Prevention Research and the Landon Foundation-AACR INNOVATOR Award for International Collaboration in Cancer Research each offer a two-year $100,000 grant, and will be used to support the work of researchers focusing on cancer prevention and international collaboration, respectively.

The recipient of the first Landon Foundation-AACR INNOVATOR Award for Cancer Prevention Research is Carlo Maley, Ph.D. Maley is an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia. Maley plans to use the AACR INNOVATOR grant funds to develop models of Barrett’s esophagus, an abnormal condition that can lead to the development of esophageal cancer. Maley will try to determine why patients develop the cancer, and whether it is possible to predict who will develop the cancer.

The first recipient of the Landon Foundation-AACR INNOVATOR Award for International Collaboration in Cancer Research is a large team of experts in genetics, thoracic oncology, pathology, and geology working in the United States and Turkey.

The International Collaboration award aims to promote international collaborative cancer research as a means of accelerating the pace of progress towards cancer prevention and treatment. The recipient team includes researchers from the University of Hawaii, the University of Chicago, the NYU School of Medicine and Clinical Cancer Center, the University of Iowa, the University of Hacettepe in Ankara, Turkey, and the Hacettepe University School of Medicine in Ankara, Turkey.

This international research team has discovered a mesothelioma epidemic centered on a group of three Turkish villages. They have so far shown that the epidemic has been caused by a genetic predisposition to a ‘gene-environment interaction’ that makes the villages more likely to develop mineral fiber-related cancers. The Turkish villagers have an vastly increased incidence of mesothelioma, and the researchers have shown that exposure to erionite, an asbestos-like mineral, is the most likely cause of the cancer.

The researchers will use the AACR INNOVATOR grant to determine which genes have predisposed the villagers to developing mesothelioma. The results of their research may be important in mesothelioma prevention and treatment, because they may be applicable to many other geographic areas and communities around the world.

Margaret Foti, Ph.D., M.D. (h.c.), AACR’s chief executive officer, said “researchers must be willing to share resources and technologies, lend expertise and communicate new concepts, perspectives and methodologies to the worldwide cancer community. The work of Dr. Carbone and his team illustrates a commitment to all of these goals and it is a pleasure to recognize him and his team…”

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 24th, 2008 at 4:44 pm and is filed under Asbestos Exposure, Mesothelioma Treatment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. Responses are currently closed, but you trackback from your own site.