The Lung Cancer Research Foundation (LCRF) has awarded a record total of $2.1 million to advance research related to lung cancer. The 2015 Scientific Grant Program awards were officially presented to 28 research projects at the LCRF 10th Annual Lung Cancer Awareness Luncheon, which took place on Thursday, Oct. 29, at The Pierre Hotel in New York City.
The 2015 Scientific Grant Program is designed to support projects in the fields of basic, clinical, and translational lung cancer research, and has a maximum one-year award amount of $75,000.
“LCRF is proud to recognize the outstanding efforts of our 2015 grant recipients,” said Nancy Sanford, the foundation’s Executive Director, in a press release from the organization.
“We believe that these groundbreaking research projects will greatly contribute to the advancement of innovative strategies to prevent and treat lung cancer, the number one cause of cancer death worldwide,” Sanford added. The 2015 recipients were chosen from a pool of over 140 applications from 92 different institutions in 19 nations.
Dr. Wen Xue, PhD, an assistant professor at the RNA Therapeutics Institute at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, was awarded both a research grant and the LCRF Scientific Merit Award. The distinction recognizes an investigator with a research proposal chosen for overall outstanding merit by the foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board.
Dr. Xue’s research project is on small RNA-mediated KRAS inhibition in lung cancer and he emphasized the importance of LCRF’s support to lung cancer research. “Continued support for lung cancer research is critical to driving advancements in the field. I’m thankful to LCRF for believing in this important research, which will potentially lead to better patient outcomes,” said Dr. Xue.
Dr. Carla F. Kim, PhD, the principal investigator at Boston Children’s Hospital Stem Cell Program and an associate professor of genetics and pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, also received the William Rippe Award for Distinguished Research in Lung Cancer for a project focused on precision medicine opportunities for BRG1 deficient lung cancers.