In its mission to eradicate breast cancer, Susan G. Komen has invested nearly $1.1 billion in research since its founding in 1982. In 2023, Komen continued a longstanding partnership with Dana-Farber by awarding $2.3 million in new grants to Dana-Farber faculty members.
About 300,000 people in the U.S. are expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, according to the American Cancer Society. “Research will cure cancer,” said Paula Schneider, Komen’s president and CEO. “The only way we move forward is to take the best from the laboratory and move it as quickly as possible into the clinic.”
This year, Komen awarded new research grants to Myles Brown, MD, director of the Institute’s Center for Functional Cancer Epigenetics and the Emil Frei III, MD, Professor of Medicine; Sarah Hill, MD, PhD; Ann Partridge, MD, MPH, founder and director of the Program for Young Adults with Breast Cancer, director of the Adult Survivorship Program, and the Eric P. Winer, MD, Chair in Breast Cancer Research at Dana-Farber; and Adrienne Waks, MD.
Additional esteemed Dana-Farber researchers supported by Komen in 2023 include Jose Pablo Leone, MD, director of the Program for Breast Cancer in Men; Jennifer Ligibel, MD, director of the Leonard P. Zakim Center for Integrative Therapies and Healthy Living; Nancy Lin, MD, MPH, director of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Program and the Program for Patients with Breast Cancer Brain Metastases; Filipa Lynce, MD, director of the Inflammatory Breast Cancer Program; Elizabeth Mittendorf, MD, PhD, co-leader of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Dana-Farber and director of the Breast Immuno-Oncology Program; Heather Parsons, MD, MPH; Kornelia Polyak, MD, PhD; and Sara Tolaney, MD, MPH, chief of the Division of Breast Oncology within the Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers at Dana-Farber.
Komen awarded Career Catalyst Research Grants to Hill and Waks. This important funding mechanism provides promising early career faculty with up to three years of protected research time under the guidance of a committee of mentors.
Hill is investigating a protein called HB01, which is widely expressed in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC)—an aggressive, hard-to-treat form of the disease commonly found in people with familial BRCA1 gene mutations. Hill intends to better define the role of HB01 and validate it as a target for therapy in TNBC.
Waks is focused on improving treatments and outcomes for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer. Using blood and tissue samples from patients in a national clinical trial led by Dana-Farber, she will evaluate two antibodies that work partly by triggering the immune system’s natural killer cells to attack cancer cells coated with the antibodies. Her findings are expected to help oncologists choose the best antibody therapy for patients and inform strategies to overcome any resistance that may occur.
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