Damon Runyon Physician-Scientist Andrew L. Ji, MD, and colleagues at Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered a population of specialized cells living at the edges of a tumor that potentially guide the metastasis of skin cancer and help it evade the body’s immune system.

The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has presented the 2020 AACR-Joseph Burchenal Award for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Cancer Research to Damon Runyon alum Jedd D. Wolchok, MD, PhD. This award recognizes Dr. Wolchok for his leadership in the groundbreaking clinical development of immunotherapy drugs called checkpoint inhibitors for treating cancer.

Last week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the HPV vaccine for the prevention of head and neck cancers. This is welcome news to Former Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Maura L. Gillison, MD, PhD, who has been fighting for this approval for over a decade.

The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Alexander and Margaret Stewart Trust have named Damon Runyon-Dale F. Frey Breakthrough Scientist Shruti Naik, PhD, and Former Damon Runyon Fellow Jihye Yun, PhD, as part of the 2020 class of the Pew-Stewart Scholars Program for Cancer Research. 

Damon Runyon prides itself on having an accomplished Board of Directors comprised of individuals who passionately believe that supporting the best young minds in cancer research will lead to a cure. We welcome Nat Turner and Judy Swanson to our Board this year. 

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation has named four new Damon Runyon Clinical Investigators. The recipients of this prestigious three-year award are outstanding early career physician-scientists conducting patient-oriented cancer studies at major research centers around the country.

Ishmeal Boles, like so many others, associated lung cancer with smoking. As a nonsmoker and non-drinker with a healthy lifestyle, this was the last diagnosis he suspected when he began to feel tired and short of breath at work. 

We reached out to our Damon Runyon current awardees, alumni, and committee members last week with the following message. We are sharing this message with the public because science is not insulated from the outside world and has always reflected the priorities and prejudices of the society it resides in. Racism and bias are not relics of a less enlightened past, but living, active forces that hold us back from scientific breakthroughs.

Damon Runyon Alumnus Ardem Patapoutian, PhD, of Scripps Research, was awarded the 2020 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience for his breakthrough discovery of sensory receptors that respond to pressure. This award recognizes outstanding achievement in advancing our knowledge and understanding of the brain and nervous system.

Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovator Rushika M. Perera, PhD, at University of the California, San Francisco, and colleagues at NYU Grossman School of Medicine have discovered that pancreatic cancer cells can appropriate an internal waste removal process to dispose of tags (MHC-1) on their surfaces which trigger the immune system to destroy tumors.