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The Melanoma Research Alliance Awards Eight Million Dollars in Research Grants to Individual Scientists and Research Teams

Washington, DC, August 19, 2008 – The Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA), a new public charity under the auspices of the Milken Institute and launched with the generous support of Debra and Leon Black, today announced the recipients of eight million dollars in grants to fund 17 innovative melanoma research proposals worldwide.

Melanoma is one of the most common cancers in men and women ages 20-29, the sixth most common cancer in the United States, and its incidence has continued to rise over the past three decades. If caught in its earliest stages, melanoma is curable with surgery; however, patients diagnosed with later stage, or metastatic melanoma, have less than a 15 percent chance of surviving five years after diagnosis.

Following its inaugural meeting in November 2007, the MRA requested research proposals that could advance the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of melanoma. The MRA received more than 100 proposals from 12 countries. A convened expert committee with international representation reviewed and ranked the proposals.

“We are gratified, but not surprised, to see such a strong response. The melanoma research community has highly-motivated individuals that have been under-supported,” said Alison Martin, M.D., MRA’s new President and Chief Executive Officer. “We are looking forward to announcing our second grant cycle in the Fall, and finding ways to synergize with potential partners in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. We are committed to the idea of a collaborative effort as the best way to accelerate the pace of research and treatment.”

The proposals of three young investigators, eight established investigators, and six research teams are presented below.

Young Investigator Awards

The MRA will be awarding $50,000 per year for two years to the following three outstanding young investigators whose work shows great promise in the field of melanoma research.

• Timothy Bullock, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology, University of Virginia
  Proposal Title: Targeting CD4+ T cells for melanoma immunotherapy


• David Mullins, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology and Human Immune Therapy, University of Virginia
  Proposal Title: Regulation of T cell chemokine receptor expression during vaccination: Tumor-targeted immunotherapy


• Dr. Padmanee Sharma, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor, University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
  Proposal Title: Defining the role of inducible co-stimulator (ICOS)-expressing T cells against melanoma

Established Investigator Awards

The Grant Review Committee has identified eight outstanding Established Investigators whose work shows great promise and will be funded at $100,000/year for two years.

• Boris Bastian, M.D., Professor of Dermatology and Pathology, University of California, San Francisco
  Proposal Title: The novel melanoma oncogene GNAQ provides new opportunities for therapeutic intervention


• Glenn Dranoff, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine, Medical Oncology Department, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
  Proposal Title: Systemic MFG-E8 blockade as melanoma therapy


• David Fisher, M.D., Ph.D., Chief, Department of Dermatology, Director, Cutaneous Biology Research Center, Director, Melanoma Program in Medical Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard University; President, Society for Melanoma Research
  Proposal Title: Targeted strategies for melanoma treatment and prevention


• Levi Garraway, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
  Proposal Title: Synthetic lethality to MAP kinase pathway inhibition in BRAF-mutant melanoma


• Daniel Pinkel, Ph.D., Professor of Laboratory Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
  Proposal Title: Genetics of melanoma metastasis


• Ton Schumacher, Ph.D., Professor of Immunotechnology, Leiden University Medical Center; Full Member, Department of Immunology, The Netherlands Cancer Institute
  Proposal Title: Platform for MHC-exchange based T cell therapy for melanoma


• Michael Weber, Ph.D., Director, University of Virginia Cancer Center
  Proposal Title: A pathway to rational combination therapies for melanoma: Synthetic lethal screening with small molecule inhibitors, guided by phosphoproteome analysis


• Jedd Wolchok, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Director, Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy; Director, Immunotherapy Clinical Trials, Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
  Proposal Title: Immunologic signatures of response to ipilimumab

Team Science Awards

The following teams received team science awards of $1,000,000 over three years:

• Jonathan Cebon, M.B.B.S., F.R.A.C.P., Ph.D., Head, Cancer Vaccine Laboratory, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research Melbourne Center; Head, Joint Austin Ludwig Oncology Unit, Austin Health; and Professor of Medicine, University of Melbourne
  Proposal Title: Therapeutic targeting of melanoma stem cells (MSC)


• Victor H. Engelhard, Ph.D., Professor of Microbiology, University of Virginia
  Proposal Title: MHC-associated phosphopeptides as targets for melanoma immunotherapy


• Nicholas K. Hayward, Ph.D., Professor and Head, Oncogenomics Laboratory, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, Australia
  Proposal Title: A genome-wide association study to identify melanoma predisposition genes


• Dave Hoon, Ph.D., Director, Department of Molecular Oncology, John Wayne Cancer Institute
  Proposal Title: Accelerating melanoma therapy: Genomics, drug screening and informatics


• Donald Morton, M.D., Chief, Melanoma Program, John Wayne Cancer Institute
  Proposal Title: Surgery and immunotherapy versus nonsurgical therapy for melanoma metastatic to distant sites


• Neal Rosen, M.D., Ph.D., Enid A. Haupt Chair in Medical Oncology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
  Proposal Title: Therapeutic inhibition of mutant activated signaling pathways in melanoma

“Each of these research proposals is considered to have the potential to be transformative in areas that hold significant promise for advancing the understanding and treatment of melanoma,” said Suzanne Topalian, M.D., Director of the Johns Hopkins Melanoma Program and chair of the MRA grant review committee.

About the Melanoma Research Alliance: The Melanoma Research Alliance is an international, cross-disciplinary group of biomedical researchers possessing clinical and scientific expertise to explore, identify, and pursue innovative solutions to critical research issues leading to better treatments and a cure for melanoma. MRA is a public charity formed under the auspices of the Milken Institute, with the initial generous founding support of Debra and Leon Black. For more information, please visit: www.melanomaresearchalliance.org.

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