Hope Funds for Cancer Research 2009 Panel Discussion
On November 2, 2009, Hope Funds for Cancer Research held the first in a series of panel discussions on translational cancer research, in New York City. Four distinguished researchers addressed “Translational Cancer Research: Opportunities and Challenges; Revisiting Private Funding’s Role in Academic Research and Clinical Studies,” to a highly engaged, sell-out audience at the National Academy of Design.
Moderated by Hope Funds Trustee Charles Baltic, the panelists were: Edward A. McDermott, Jr., Director of the Ludwig Institute; Malcolm A. S. Moore, D.Phil, Sloan-Kettering Institute’s head of the James Ewing Laboratory of Developmental Hematopohesis and lead developer of Neupogen; Jon Soderstrom, Ph.D., Managing Director of the Office of Cooperative Research at Yale University; and Sohail Tavazoie, M.D., Ph.D., The Rockefeller University’s director of the laboratory of Systems Cancer Biology.
The panelists addressed the need for additional and creative funding sources, the need for biopharma and academic collaboration, having more translational researchers participating in the grant-making process, using clinical trial design that is based on biology addressing specific patient populations and the continued need to keep the most gifted young scientists involved in the field of research.
The Panel Discussion was followed by a Reception and Poster Session with three of the Hope Funds Postdoctoral Fellows: Pedro Medina, Ph.D., from Yale University; Eric Sawey, Ph.D., from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; and Hien Thanh Tran, M.D., Ph.D., from The Rockefeller University. The evening raised nearly $30,000 to help fund postdoctoral fellowships in cancer research.
All photography on this page is courtesy of Julie Skarratt Photography.