Award Summary
The AACR Gertrude B. Elion Cancer Research Award is open to tenure-track scientists at the level of Assistant Professor, who completed postdoctoral studies or clinical fellowships no later than July 1 of the application year and ordinarily not more than five years prior to the Award year. It provides a one-year grant of $50,000 for salary and benefits, laboratory supplies, and limited domestic travel to support research in cancer etiology, diagnosis, treatment, or prevention (basic, translational, or clinical cancer research).
The recipient of the 2008 Award must attend the AACR 2008 Annual Meeting to accept the award, and is required to give a presentation of his or her research in a minisymposium at the AACR 2009 Annual Meeting.
Program Guidelines & Application Instructions
Applications are now closed.
Submission deadline: December 3, 2007
Decision Date: March 31, 2008
Grant term begins: July 1, 2008
Applications must be completed online using the proposalCENTRAL website, with one paper copy submitted to the AACR office. Application instructions and program guidelines are available below and on the proposalCENTRAL website.
About Gertrude B. Elion
This Award honors the late Dr. Gertrude B. Elion, Scientist Emeritus at Glaxo Wellcome Co. (now GlaxoSmithKline). Her seminal research at the company revolutionized cancer therapeutics and her prolific contributions to biomedical science earned her the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1988. The AACR is extremely pleased to sponsor this award in the name of Dr. Elion, a distinguished Past President and Honorary Member of the AACR.
Generously supported by GlaxoSmithKline Oncology.
Inquiries
Ms. Julia Laurence
Telephone: (267) 646-0655
Fax: (215) 440-9372
E-mail: julia.laurence@aacr.org
SPOTLIGHT
2007 Recipient
Kent W. Christopherson II, Ph.D.
Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL
Project: Umbilical cord Wharton's jelly mesenchymal stem cell transplant therapies
Dr. Christopherson leads translational research efforts for the Sections of Hematology & Stem Cell Transplantation in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Rush. His primary scientific expertise and research efforts encompass the fields of experimental hematology and stem cell biology in the context of developing novel treatment strategies for blood cancers. Along these lines, Dr. Christopherson is interested in further developing the usage of umbilical cord blood for adult blood cancer patients who would benefit from hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. It is in this context that he states the following, "Large numbers of donor stem cells are required for a successful transplantation and cord blood, by its very nature, is limited in cell number. It can be argued that in order to overcome the limitations of donor cell number it is necessary to expand the transplantable cell population, increase transplant efficiency, or both. The use of genetically mismatched bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells to support the expansion of cord blood is not ideal for transplant purposes. As an alternative, we will investigate the use of mesenchymal stem cells derived from the Wharton's jelly of umbilical cord segments to support the ex vivo expansion of cord blood hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. These experiments will generate the necessary data to propose future xenograft transplant model projects and subsequent investigator-initiated clinical trials utilizing human cord blood hematopoietic stem and progenitors cells that were expanded on a genetically identical mesenchymal stem cell layer. I am honored to have been chosen to receive the 2007 AACR Gertrude B. Elion Cancer Research Award and receive the research support provided by the award, especially in light of Gertrude Elion's innovative research approaches that led to novel drug therapies for many diseases, including leukemia."