LRF Continues its Support of Young Investigators
Dedicated to Developing Minimally Toxic Patient Therapies and Lymphoma Cures
New York, NY – June 1, 2018 – The Lymphoma Research Foundation (LRF) – the nation’s largest non-profit organization devoted to funding innovative lymphoma research and serving the lymphoma community through education programs, outreach initiatives and patient services – today announced it has awarded more than $1.3 million in research grants to young investigators and disease-specific scientists based at many of the world’s leading cancer research institutes.
The 2018 LRF grants include 13 Young Investigator Awards and three Disease Focus Area Awards for more established scientists. Young Investigator grants are awarded in three categories: the LRF Career Development Award (CDA), the LRF Postdoctoral Fellowship, and the Lymphoma Clinical Research Mentoring Program (LCRMP).
The LRF CDA is a three-year $225,000 grant that supports clinical researchers within five years of the completion of their postdoctoral training. Supported by an institutional mentor, grantees must spend at least 35 percent of their time in independent clinical research; their grant provides salary support, professional development, and research expenses.
The 2018 LRF CDA grantees are Hema Dave, MD, Children’s Research Institute (Children’s National Medical Center) and Jacob Drobnyk Soumerai, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital. Drs. Dave and Soumerai are alumni of the 2017 Lymphoma Clinical Research Mentoring Program.
LRF Postdoctoral Fellowships award $105,000 over a two-year period to support PhD fellows who have not completed more than five years of postdoctoral work, and MD fellows who have completed at least two years and no more than five years of their fellowship work. Grantees must spend at least 80 percent of their time in research; their award provides salary support, professional development, and research expenses.
The 2018 LRF Postdoctoral Fellowship grantees are Anat Biran, PhD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Jennifer Shingleton, PhD, Duke University.
The LRF LCRMP awards two-year $10,000 grants along with mentoring and education to hematology and oncology fellows and junior faculty dedicated to clinical research in the field of non-Hodgkin and Hodgkin lymphoma. Program participants, called LRF Scholars, attend and participate in a week-long intensive introductory workshop and follow-up programming intended to enhance their abilities to successfully design and administer clinical research studies and secure future grant funding. Participants also receive a professional development grant and are matched with experts in the field to foster future participation and collaboration within the Foundation through follow-up programming and activities. This year’s class of Scholars were selected by LRF’s Scientific Advisory Board for their promise in their study of lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).
The 2018 Class of LRF Scholars includes Jennifer Agrusa, MD (Baylor College of Medicine), Elizabeth Anne Gruber Brem, MD, HS (University of California – Irvine), Jennifer Crombie, MD (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute), Brian Greenwell, MD (Emory University), Shalin Kothari, MD (Roswell Park Cancer Institute), Ryan Lynch, MD (University of Washington), Priyanka Pophali, MD (Mayo Clinic, Rochester), and Patrick Reagan, MD (University of Rochester). Jonathon B. Cohen MD, MS (Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University), a 2014 LRF Scholar and 2016 recipient of a Lymphoma Research Foundation Career Development Award, will serve as an institutional mentor to Dr. Greenwell.
“The Lymphoma Research Foundation is proud to welcome this new class of LRF Scholars into this already esteemed program,” said Thomas M. Habermann, MD, Mayo Clinic, Rochester and Chair of the Lymphoma Research Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). “To date, more than 94 percent of LRF Scholars are still dedicated to the study of lymphoma, and we welcome this year’s Scholars into their ranks.”
The 2018 LRF Disease Focus Area Grants, which support the work of more established investigators, include the Adolescent Young Adult Correlative Studies Grant, a two-year $100,000 award to Justine Kahn, MD (Columbia University), a former LRF Scholar, and the Mantle Cell Lymphoma Therapeutic Studies Grant, a three-year $250,000 award to Sandeep Dave, MD (Duke University), and Jianguo Tao, MD, PhD (H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute).
LRF’s grant selections are awarded with the guidance of the LRF Scientific Advisory Board, which is comprised of 45 world-renowned lymphoma experts dedicated to seeking out the most innovative and promising lymphoma research projects for investment.
“Each year, as our research portfolio continues to grow, we see an undeniable continuity between the young investigators that we support in the early stages of their research and the more experienced leaders in the hematology-oncology space, including members of our Scientific Advisory Board who have received LRF grants in the past,” said Meghan Gutierrez, Chief Executive Officer of the Lymphoma Research Foundation. “By helping to shepherd the best and brightest young minds in blood cancer research along in their study of lymphoma, we will be able to have an even greater impact on the lymphoma community that we serve.”