Letter from the President
August 25, 2010
Dear Friend:
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