The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation has named five brilliant doctors with novel approaches to fighting cancer as Damon Runyon Physician-Scientists. Grants totaling $2.3 million will provide them the opportunity to gain skills and experience in translational and clinical research.

Since COVID-19 cases escalated to pandemic levels worldwide, Damon Runyon scientists are contributing to the unprecedented global effort to stop the disease by investigating how this specific coronavirus enters human cells, developing more efficient testing and searching for a treatment. 

The first class of Damon Runyon Quantitative Biology Fellowship Awardees launched their research in novel directions that may lead to the next breakthroughs in cancer research. Nine brilliant young scientists will apply their quantitative skills to design innovative experiments and interpret massive data sets that may help solve important biological and clinical problems.

COVID-19 related laboratory shutdowns threaten to derail scientists in the critical earliest stages of their careers. In response, the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation is extending funding for those Damon Runyon scientists most affected by the current crisis, totaling an additional investment of up to $1,170,000 during the upcoming fiscal year. Watch our webinar as our scientists discuss the challenges of doing research during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Seven Damon Runyon alumni were elected to the National Academy of Sciences (the science “Hall of Fame”), one of the highest honors that can be given to a U.S. scientist. This brings the total number of Damon Runyon scientists who are members of the National Academy of Sciences to 86.

Damon Runyon-Gordon Family Clinical Investigator Geoffrey R. Oxnard, MD; Board Member Michael V. Seiden, MD, PhD; and colleagues published results of a new blood test that can detect more than 50 types of cancer, often before symptoms develop. This may give patients and doctors a huge advantage and opportunity to treat the disease before it reaches advanced stages.

Former Damon Runyon Fellow Aaron D. Viny, MD, cares for people with leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) at Memorial Sloan Kettering as an oncologist specializing in blood cancers. Recently, Dr. Viny spent two weeks treating cancer patients in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are his reflections, from his twitter thread, as a physician-scientist at a unique time in medical history. 

Co-Authored by Damon Runyon Fellow Caroline Bartman, PhD, and Sponsor Joshua Rabinowitz, MD, PhD, and published in the New York Times 
As with any other poison, viruses are usually deadlier in larger amounts.

Damon Runyon Board Member Elaine V. Fuchs, PhD, the Rebecca C. Lancefield Professor of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development at The Rockefeller University, has received the 2020 Canada Gairdner Award in recognition of her pioneering work on tissue stem cells, the cells of our tissues that are responsible for repairing wounds. 

We’re thrilled to welcome Judy Swanson to the Damon Runyon Board of Directors this year. Judy is passionate about encouraging science and innovation at all levels, which is one of the reasons she supports Damon Runyon. Judy has been a member of the Damon Runyon Bay Area Committee since January 2017.