The Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research Announces 2008 Cancer Research Grant...

The Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research Announces 2008 Cancer Research Grant Recipients

PHILADELPHIA--(Business Wire)--
The Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research has selected
sixteen scientists from across the United States to receive two year
grants under the Foundation's on-going Kimmel Scholar program. A total
of 160 talented cancer researchers have been provided with grant money
since the Foundation's inception with each receiving a $200,000 award
to further a specific cancer research project.

The Kimmel Scholar Awards were created in 1997 to advance the
careers of gifted, young scientists involved in cancer research.
Scientists are selected who show the greatest promise and innovation,
but whose careers have not evolved sufficiently to provide them the
critical mass of prior research that typically justifies receiving
major grants from the National Cancer Institute and other funding
sources.

Sidney Kimmel, the organization's founder and chairman of the
board of Jones Apparel Group and president of Sidney Kimmel
Entertainment, meets each year with the Foundation's medical advisory
board and observes as the esteemed group of leading cancer doctors
narrows down the applicants. This year there were nearly 200 grant
applications for review.

Kimmel has contributed more than $350 million to cancer centers
and cancer research since 1997 and another $100 million to the arts
and Jewish continuity.

Many of the exceptional young scientists who have their careers
'jump started' by the Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research go
on to receive millions of dollars in funding from the NCI and NIH and
make significant contributions to the field of cancer research. Many
report that they might never have achieved such success without first
receiving the Kimmel grant.

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This year's recipients are:

Nabeel Bardeesy, Ph.D.
Massachusetts General Hospital
"Function of the WTX tumor suppressor"

* Ronald Buckanovich, M.D., Ph.D.
University of Michigan
"Tumor endothelial cells as a clinical target in ovarian
cancer"

* Barbara Buttin, M.D.
Northwestern University
"The role of synuclein-gamma (SNCG) in the carcinogenesis of
uterine papillary serous carcinoma"

Richard Gardner, Ph.D.
University of Washington
"Understanding the roles of protein deubiquitination in
chromatin regulation and other vital nuclear processes"

* Ramiro Garzon, M.D.
Ohio State University
"Epigenetic modulation of DNA methyltransferases by miR-29b: a
paradigm for developing novel hypomethylating strategies in
AML"

* Roger Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D.
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
"Control of homologous recombination at DNA double strand
break sites by manipulating lysine-63-linked ubiquitin
metabolism"

Patrick Hu, M.D., Ph.D.
University of Michigan
"Novel regulators of FoxO tumor supressors"

* Vassiliki Karantza-Wadsworth, M.D., Ph.D.
UMDNJ - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
"Role of autophagy in breast cancer progression and treatment"

Tae Hoon Kim, Ph.D.
Yale University
"Genome-wide analysis of chromatin barriers"

Karen Liby, Ph.D.
Darthmouth Medical School
"New drugs and drug combinations for the prevention and
treatment of cancer"

Raul Mostoslavsky, M.D., Ph.D.
Massachusetts General Hospital
"The role of the SIRT6 chromatin factor in DNA repair and in
metabolic homeostasis"

Cathie Pfleger, Ph.D.
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
"Identification and characterization of mutations in non-tumor
cells that promote metastasis"

Jeroen Roose, Ph.D.
University of California, San Francisco
"Increased RasGRP1 function leads to aberrantly sensitized Ras
activation and development of T cell lymphomas in humans"

Lanlan Shen, M.D., Ph.D.
University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
"Epigenetic reprogramming in cancer"

Hengbin Wang, Ph.D.
University of Alabama, Birmingham
"Role of Ubp-M and H2A deubiquitination in breast cancer
development"

Hang Yin, Ph.D.
University of Colorado, Boulder
"Novel peptide probes to study the activation mechanism of the
Epstein-Barr Virus latent membrane protein 1"

* Translational Scholars
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The Foundation is particularly interested in helping physicians
who are engaged in research which can rapidly be translated into
benefits for patients with cancer. Five of the sixteen awards have
been designated for such "Translational Research."

The Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research has also funded
four cancer centers at San Diego, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer
Center, Thomas Jefferson University and Johns Hopkins University. The
gift to Johns Hopkins, $150 million, is the largest gift ever received
by that institution. In the area of arts and culture, The Kimmel
Foundation has supported the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in
Philadelphia as well as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in
Washington D.C., among others. For more information visit
www.kimmel.org.

For The Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research
Risa B. Hoag, 845-627-3000
risa@kimmel.org

Copyright Business Wire 2008