Letters from the President
Dear Friends:
I hope this finds you enjoying the holiday season and preparing for a happy and healthy New Year. All of us at the Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA) are grateful for the friendships and support that have made 2010 a remarkable year for the field of melanoma research and for the MRA.
As you know, after decades of little progress in the field, this has been a time of new hope for melanoma patients and all those at risk for this deadly disease.
Promising new drugs are in clinical development for the treatment of advanced metastatic melanoma. Progress with targeted therapies, including immunotherapies and signaling pathway inhibitors, underscore remarkable recent advances in these areas. Yet much more remains to be done until melanoma is fully and properly addressed. The MRA scientific program is supporting important lines of research to improve upon these approaches and has catalyzed transformative advances designed to bring near-term benefits to patients and those at risk. Just this weekend, MRA's funding of critical work to identify mechanisms of resistance to new therapies was highlighted in a major New York Times story.
In 2010, MRA awarded $6.3 million in new research projects, including the first sponsored awards - the Stewart Rahr-MRA Young Investigator Award and the Henry Silverman-MRA Team Science Award. This brought the total MRA research funding in its first three years of grants to $22 million awarded to 50 research programs worldwide being led by 87 Principal Investigators at 44 institutions in eight countries. The 2011 funding cycle is underway, and at least $7 million will be awarded, including 10 new Young Investigator Awards, which support the next generation of melanoma research leaders. In addition, MRA is offering a new type of award in 2011 - the Academic-Industrial Partnership Awards - to facilitate research with high potential for clinical impact.
In just a few years of active research funding, MRA's impact has been felt, including through publications in high-impact journals, patents filed, and promising scientific and clinical advancements. MRA funds research that is making progress in the the key scientific and clinical areas identified at our Call to Action conference in 2007. Based on the progress that has been made, our scientific leadership is now refining and further focusing our strategic research agenda for the next three years. The impact of the MRA investment is also seen in leveraged funding; more than $12 million in additional funding from other sources has been secured by 2008 and 2009 awardees, bringing MRA's total impact on the field to more than $34 million.
MRA's Second Annual Scientific Retreat was held Feb. 26-28, 2010, in Las Vegas and brought together more than 125 leading scientists from around the world, as well as senior leadership from foundations, government, industry, and other key stakeholders to share their latest findings in the understanding and treatment of melanoma and to facilitate collaboration. As I write, plans are underway for the 2011 Retreat, which will again be an important highlight of our collaborative research program.
MRA made tremendous strides in engaging new partners and resources for the fight against melanoma this year and officially launched the Corporate Alliances program. We are working with a diverse and committed cadre of corporate partners, including dozens of companies who share our commitment to the mission of defeating melanoma.
On Oct. 28, we held our first annual benefit dinner at Sotheby's, which raised $5 million and brought our fundraising total for the year to $15 million. As a result of the generous ongoing support of our founders, Debra and Leon Black, 100 percent of contributions to the MRA are used to support our research program. We also developed special partnerships with allies who have worked to amplify our message about melanoma, including Cartier, GNC, and SkinCeuticals.
We shared our messages about melanoma at two high-profile conferences as well. At the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles in May, MRA's co-founder and chair, Debra Black, and chief science officer, Suzanne Topalian, spoke about progress in the prevention and treatment of cancer. In December at the Partnering for Cures meeting in New York, Topalian and Laura Brockway-Lunardi, scientific program director, discussed MRA's unique Academic-Industrial partnerships.
We are grateful for the support and commitment of so many individuals and organizations who are engaging with us in the fight against melanoma. Although much work remains before we achieve our mission, the remarkable progress of 2010 inspires us to redouble our efforts in the New Year.
Best wishes to you and yours for the New Year.
Wendy K.D. Selig
President & CEO
Melanoma Research Alliance
Dear Friends,
It was my privilege to join patient advocates, philanthropists, and scientists at the Melanoma Research Alliance's (MRA) first annual benefit dinner last week at Sotheby’s in New York City. The event was sold out, as more than 200 attendees came together to salute the brilliant scientists, researchers, and clinicians who are transforming the field of melanoma.
The benefit dinner surpassed all expectations, raising $5 million for MRA’s research program and bringing the total raised by MRA so far this year to $15 million. Because of the generous support of our founders, Debra and Leon Black, 100 percent of the proceeds raised through the benefit dinner and every day at MRA go directly to funding innovative,high-impact melanoma research.
The evening honored the promising progress that is finally being made in the field of melanoma research, as well as the 87 Principal Investigators and 10 Young Investigators worldwide currently funded by MRA, who are pursuing groundbreaking research to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of melanoma. As part of the live auction during the dinner, attendees pledged support for nine additional Young Investigator Awards. MRA is actively soliciting research proposals from promising early career scientists as well as established investigators and research teams under the current Request for Proposals.
So many people and organizations contributed to the tremendous results of the benefit dinner, which was led by event co-chairs Debra and Leon Black, Larry Gagosian, Susan and John Hess, Nancy and Howard Marks, Lori and Michael Milken, and Carol and Stewart Rahr. We are grateful to all of our sponsors and contributors, and to our Corporate Allies, whose generosity will have a dramatic impact on MRA’s mission of accelerating the pace of scientific discovery.
2010 continues to be a year of hope and progress in the fight against melanoma. New drugs, such as molecularly targeted therapies and immunotherapies, are in clinical development. The Society for Melanoma Research International Melanoma Congress meeting in Sydney, Australia this week includes presentations from 11 MRA-funded researchers and members of our scientific leadership. Much progress is being made, but we recognize that much remains to be done before metastatic melanoma is fully and properly addressed.
We share the passion of our broad base of supporters for finding innovative solutions leading to better treatments and a cure for patients with melanoma. The enthusiasm from these events will be carried out each day in the ongoing work of MRA and its researchers around the world to end suffering and death due to melanoma.
Thank you for all your ongoing support of our work.
Wendy K.D. Selig
President & CEO
Melanoma Research Alliance
Dear Friends:
Every day, the Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA) continues to accelerate progress to improve outcomes for melanoma patients and those at-risk. No organization can win this fight alone, so we are actively engaging individuals, foundations, non-profits and corporations to work with us toward the day when no one will suffer or die from melanoma.
I am pleased to announce that MRA has joined with General Nutrition Center (GNC) in working to generate resources and increase awareness to fight melanoma. Jointly we will be delivering an important message to the public: you don't need to put yourself at risk of deadly skin cancer to get an adequate supply of vitamin D. We are teaming up to educate the public about melanoma and ways to reduce risk, including avoiding dangerous ultraviolet (UV) rays (from the sun and from indoor tanning), and knowing and regularly examining your skin. Through online tools, print publications and other outreach efforts, we expect to reach millions of people with this important information.
Collaboration is at MRA's core – from the team approaches to research, to the way we work with partners who can help us realize our goals. Thanks to the continued support of our founders, 100 percent of all contributions received by MRA go directly to supporting our research programs. Please visit MRA's Corporate Allies page to see our growing list of partnerships that are helping us pursue our mission, to save people from melanoma
We are grateful to GNC, and all of our other allies, for their generous direct and in-kind support. Learn more about MRA's alliance with GNC.
Wendy K.D. Selig
President & CEO
Melanoma Research Alliance
Dear Friends:
I am happy to share with you two significant milestones for the MRA and its mission to eliminate death and suffering due to melanoma. We have concluded our 2010 granting cycle this week by announcing $5.2 million in awards to support six innovative multidisciplinary research programs designed to benefit melanoma patients. MRA has also released its Request for Proposals (RFP) for the 2011 cycle, which will include at least $5 million in new research funding.
To date, MRA has awarded nearly $22 million to 50 programs in eight countries and has made significant progress – from studies published in high-impact peer-reviewed journals to patent applications, from scientific meeting presentations to new cross-sector collaborations. This makes MRA the largest private funder of melanoma research in the U.S.
The six teams receiving the new grants include a total of 22 principal investigators from 10 U.S. institutions and centers. These programs focus on improving treatment approaches for metastatic melanoma, including studies of immunotherapies and molecularly targeted therapies. MRA is committed to combating this deadly disease and, with each grant cycle, our commitment is strengthened as we see the progress that is made through novel, creative and collaborative approaches to defeating melanoma. The research projects awarded represent cutting-edge work that we expect will help accelerate and translate scientific knowledge into clinical advances that will benefit patients.
This year's Team Science Awards included the MRA's second sponsored award, with the research program, "Modulating anti-tumor immunity with dendritic cells," receiving the Henry Silverman-MRA Team Science Award. This award was established through the generous support of Henry Silverman, member of the MRA Board. MRA values partnerships such as this to maximize the impact of our research program and improve the outlook for melanoma patients.
2010 continues to be an important year in melanoma research. You may have seen news reports of a new drug called PLX4032/RG7204, an inhibitor of mutated BRAF, which caused tumor regression in patients with advanced metastatic melanoma with the mutant gene, according to the results of a paper published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine. While progress is being made, much work remains to be done to improve upon this approach by identifying the causes of drug resistance. One of the new MRA Team Science Awards, "Studies on the mechanism(s) of de novo and acquired resistance to selective RAF inhibition," will investigate this very important issue.
Information about these awards and the RFP can be found in the research section of our website. Thank you for your continuing interest in our work. With your help we can defeat melanoma.
Wendy K.D. Selig
President & CEO
Melanoma Research Alliance
Dear Friends:
I am pleased to announce the release of the MRA report, "Transformative Advances in Melanoma Research," a summary of the progress and opportunities in melanoma research reported at our Second Annual Scientific Retreat, held February 24-26, 2010, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The annual MRA retreat is a key element of MRA's program, facilitating collaboration by bringing together leading scientists from the U.S. and abroad, as well as senior leadership from non-profit foundations, government agencies, industry, and other key stakeholders to share their latest findings and to identify new approaches to understanding and treating melanoma.
Although melanoma poses many difficult challenges, researchers working at the basic and clinical levels are making significant progress toward developing better diagnostic and preventive measures, improved treatments, and a deeper understanding of this complex and deadly disease. Recent advances in the development of new therapeutic approaches have generated excitement and optimism for a better outlook for melanoma patients. With the significant infusion of research funding from the MRA, investigators are finding ways to improve upon these results as well as create new prevention, detection, and treatment approaches to combat this deadly disease.
The retreat featured presentations from MRA-funded investigators, invited special lectures, and focused sessions on key topics of interest. The report summarizes the highlights and key themes of the meeting's scientific sessions.
- Identifying New Therapeutic Targets, Candidate Drugs
- Developing New Immunotherapies and Combined Surgical Approaches
- Genome Scans, Other Strategies for Identifying Melanoma Markers
- New Technologies for Early Melanoma Detection, Prevention
- Nutritional Approaches to Melanoma Research
The MRA scientific retreat facilitated the information-sharing across research sectors needed to continue to build a robust, collaborative melanoma research community focused on delivering effective results as quickly as possible. Focused on finding and funding the most promising melanoma research worldwide, MRA supports novel research programs that will advance scientific understanding of melanoma needed to enable the development of effective treatments and accelerate progress towards a cure. As of March 2010, MRA has awarded $17 million to 44 research projects with plans to award an additional $5 million in 2010 to support new and innovative research that will make transforming advances in melanoma prevention, diagnosis, staging, and treatment.
Download a copy of the report. I hope you find the report useful and informative.The Melanoma Research Alliance looks forward to partnering with you in our pursuit of our mission of defeating melanoma. Thank you for your continuing interest in our work.
Wendy K.D. Selig
President & CEO
Melanoma Research Alliance