The Breast Cancer Research Foundation
Donate Now WINTER 2010

Expansion of BCRF Grants Advisory Process

The steady growth in BCRF's revenues has led to corresponding expansion each year in the research supported by Foundation grants to deserving scientists. Grants announced in October 2007 totaled $32 million, nearly four times what BCRF awarded six years ago. The grants invitation, review, and approval process is guided by a distinguished group of respected research leaders, known as the Executive Board of Scientific Advisors, who identify the very best breast cancer researchers based on their projects' potential for rapid translation to new therapies and methods of prevention. This Executive Board is chaired by Larry Norton, MD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering, who has served as the Foundation's Scientific Director since BCRF's inception in 1993; his colleagues on the Executive Board include Nancy Davidson, MD, of Johns Hopkins University (and currently the president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology), Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, MD, of MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Peter Greenwald, MD, Dr.PH, of the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health.

Recently, the Executive Board appointed a new group, known as the Scientific Advisory Committee, to work with them in identifying research talent and charting the future direction of the Foundation's funding of research aimed at prevention and a cure. The Committee is chaired by Clifford Hudis, MD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and also includes Patricia A. Ganz, MD, of UCLA; Judy E. Garber, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Lajos Pusztai, MD, D.Phil, of MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Vered Stearns, MD, of Johns Hopkins University. The members of the Scientific Advisory Committee all are very familiar with BCRF's research portfolio and the global breast cancer community at large, and they look forward to putting their collective talents to work in their new roles. Following his appointment, Dr. Hudis stated, "I am looking forward to helping this new Committee extend and expand the scientific reach of BCRF in new and innovative ways."