PFC News
June 2010
The Longest Day of Golf Chicago raised another $50,000+ to support prostate cancer research at the University of Chicago. 18 golfers played from 5:30 am until 9:15 pm at the Bryn Mawr Country Club in Lincolnwood, Illinois! The weather was great and we had one player who finished 102 holes!
Study #1-MRI-guided laser-induced thermal therapy for focal ablation of prostate cancer, Drs. Scott Eggener and Aytekin Oto-Click here for an update
Study #2-Multi-marker expression analysis on circulating tumor cells isolated from men with castrate resistant prostate cancer using a novel microcapture device, Dr. Russell Szmulewitz-Click here for an update
May 2010
PFC in the news
We are featured in Sharon Begley's column "Desperately Seeking Cures" in a June 2010 issue of Newsweek. Click on the logo to view the article.
May 2010
PFC in the news
Dr. Bruce Bloom and PFC are profiled by Sun-Times Financial Columnist Ted Pincus. Click on the logo to view the article.
March 2010
April 15 2010 Dare 2 Dream Charity Concert for PFC!
One of Chicago’s hottest fanfare events, Dare 2 Dream, will kick off its eighth benefit event on Thursday, April 15th, 2010 at the House of Blues in Chicago. Rock icons and featured band, Blues Traveler, will perform to support juvenile diabetes research. A portion of the event’s proceeds will benefit Partnership for Cures to find a cure for juvenile diabetes.
For tickets, click here
February 2010
Harris Bank
The Harris Bank becomes the most recent corporate sponsor for Partnership for Cures. The Harris has committed to grant PFC operating funding support for the next two years. Leslie Anderson, a VP at Harris, joined the PFC Board. "I am passionate about creating new treatments for patients while they are still healthy enough to benefit," says Ms. Anderson. "My family and friends have been impacted by health issues recently. I can see how critical it is for us to focus on increasing their quality and length of life."
January 2010
Zygomycosis Research Forum
Partnership for Cures and the Henry Schueler 41 and 9 Foundation co-sponsored a zygomycosis symposium to create a consensus on detection and treatment of the fungal infection zygomycosis (a deadly fungal infection that ultimately caused Hank Schueler's death) in conjunction with world renowned clinician-scientist Dr. Tom Walsh of the NCI. Scientists came from Europe to join those from over a dozen institutions here in the US on January 19-20, 2010 in Chicago. The results of the Forum will be published in the CID, the journal of infectious disease.
December 2009
Northwestern Memorial Hospital
The Grant Healthcare Foundation approved a grant to Partnership for Cures supporting myelodysplastic syndrome research with Drs. Seth Corey and Olga Frankfurt at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. This is the second year that GHF has provided a grant to PFC. Last year they funded an MS study at University of Illinois supporting the work of Dr. Doug Feinstein, repurposing drugs to improve MS function.
November 2009
Rare Disease Research-Birt Hogg Dube Syndrome
Myrovlytis Trust- We are working with John Solly, the Charity Director of this Great Britain not-for-profit. We just completed our reviews of proposals for $100,000 in grants over 1-2 years. 3 grants were selected for funding and are all underway. This creates our first International Partnership, with our Great Britain funding partner and our three researchers from Netherland, Canada and Wales! In addition, we will have a second grant cycle later this summer, and expect to add BHD to our list of drug screening programs!
October 2009
Prostate Cancer-Our Chicago Longest Day of Golf
Prostate Cancer-Our Chicago Longest Day of Golf 2009 generated enough funding for two new direct patient impact clinical projects. Thanks to all of the golfers and their families and friends, and to Board members Steve Goldsher who raised additional funds and spearheaded the event and Steve Braun who raised additional funds and brought his staff to support the day of the event.
We have selected the final proposals which will be selected to begin in October 2009:
University of Chicago-Prostate Cancer, $25,000, Dr. Scott Eggener "A Feasibility Study to Evaluate Magnetic Resonance Thermal Image-guided Laser-Induced Interstitial Thermal Therapy for Focal Ablation of Prostate Cancer." This human clinical trial, approved by the FDA, will test a treatment that can eliminate prostate cancer cells without damaging the surrounding tissues.
University of Chicago- Prostate Cancer, $25,000, Dr. Russell Szmulewitz. "Multi-marker expression analysis on circulating tumor cells isolated from men with castrate resistant prostate cancer using a novel microcapture device." The management of hormone resistant prostate cancer remains a challenge to clinicians, mainly due to a lack of appropriate medications. Identification of markers in the circulating blood of prostate cancer patients will help lead to novel therapeutic approaches.
September 2009
Funding Discussions with Legislators
While Dr. Bloom was in DC a few weeks ago he met with Yul Edwards, Chief of Staff to Congressman Danny Davis. Mr. Edwards asked Dr. Bloom to send him a proposal for a $500,000 demonstration project for PFC to repurpose drugs to reduce healthcare costs and improve care. Dr. Bloom met with other legislators and in January PFC will also be sending project proposals to Senator Dick Durbin and Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky for FY 2011.
August 2009
CureforMS.org research at Johns Hopkins
Our Newsweek feature landed us a new group that wants to fund MS research with us. Scott Rothrock and Ted Smith signed an agreement so that we can begin working together. Their goal is to raise $1.5M or more over the next 24 months to fund a phase III clinical trial repurposing cyclophosphamide and Copaxone for relapsing remitting MS to be conducted at Johns Hopkins and other medical centers. See their website at www.CureforMS.org.
July 2009
Multiple Sclerosis Research-Rockford Chapter of PFC
Our funded human clinical trial at the world renowned TCNL research center has now demonstrated that patients can quickly regain walking, balance, vision, hearing, sleep and other body functions with this non-invasive stimulation therapy. ALL PATIENTS IN THIS STUDY RECOVERED SIGNIFICANT FUNCTION. The first prototype PoNS portable devices are now being used by patients.
With significant support from Partnership for Cures, we have directed another $400,000 to the TCNL for the next 10 patients clinical trial that includes home use of the PoNS, stage two of PoNS development, documentation of the training program and training of a physical therapist. We are talking with a number of Rockford Hospitals who are very interested in helping raise funds and providing staff, resources and facilities to create research locations for this work in Rockford.
June 2009
Featured in Newsweek
We are featured in Sharon Begley's column "Bench to Bedside" in a June 2009 issue of Newsweek. Click on the logo to view the article.
PFC President and Chief Science Officer, Dr. Bruce Bloom, will be in Washington in June interviewing for an Ashoka Fellowship (http://www.ashoka.org/files/5StageSelection%20Process_0.jpg). He will also be visiting with the healthcare legislative aides in several congressional and senate offices to talk about how the cost savings from the work of PFC impacts the healthcare legislation being marked up right now.
May 2009
Jasper Against Batten Fund
We recently created a new funding partnership to raise $500,000 for research to support a clinical trial for Batten Disease, a fatal nerve disease of infants and children. These funds will be used to fund research that will hopefully touch Batten patients within the next two years. Several research opportunities are under investigation, including gene therapy, drug screening and enzyme replacement therapy. In the first two weeks we worked together to raise $250,000 in donations and pledges!
April 2009
4Bucks4Cures Initiatives
We will be launching our 4B4C Initiatives with funding partners with Heart and Soul Magazine and with EFete.com. Each of these companies will be sending e-mails or posting our "donate $4 and tell 4 of your friends to do the same" solicitation to their hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Funds from the Heart and Soul solicitation will support research at Meharry Medical College/Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. The EFete.com funding will support research into natural substances as medicine, such as the EGCG from Green Tea that is helping the familial dysautonomia patients. We are looking for more funding partners for these initiatives.
March 2009
The PrivateBank and Trust
We received a commitment for an unrestricted yearly grant of $25,000 from this corporate sponsor, which has also provided two prior $25,000 grants, as well as meeting space and event support throughout 2008, thanks to our Board member, Mark Kosiek.
February 2009
Brinson Foundation
We received our third $25,000 grant from the Brinson Foundation that will be used to support part of the Mayo Clinic blood cancer stem cell transplant project. This project is entering year two having accrued more patients in year one than expected, and having a 100% success rate in both the test and control groups!
January 2009
Myrovlytis Trust Great Britain
Our first International Collaboration begins with John Solly, the "Charity Manager" (Executive Director in British Speak) of this Great Britain not-for-profit. Their science advisors put together a "disease review" of the orphan disease Birt Hogg Dube Syndrome and they want to partner with us to find and manage research. We have proposed $100,000 in grants (2-4 grants of $25,000-50,000) over 1-2 years. We sent the disease review to several of our researchers who have done these kinds of genetic orphan diseases, and have forwarded it to our Science Chair Dr. Kron for review. We believe will will have live projects started within the next 180 days.
December 2008
Grant Healthcare Foundation
In the GHF Board of Directors approved the selection of Partnership for Cures as their exclusive medical research granting partner. Going forward we will generate all of the requests for proposals, review and validate all grants, recommend grants to the GHF Board, and then administer all grants made. Their current financial situation would allow them to grant between $80,000-150,000 to medical research each year, all to Chicago research institutions. Joan Ridell, their Executive Director, indicated that having our resource would encourage them to grant at the higher end. This year they approved and sent us a check for a Pilot Grant at the University of Illinois studying repurposing drugs for multiple sclerosis. The first quarter of that project is complete, under budget, ahead of schedule, and they have added a second generic drug to be tested.
November 2008
41 & 9 Foundation
The 41 & 9 Foundation was set up in memory of Hank Schueler, a 14 year old boy who succumbed to complications of lymphoblastic leukemia or "ALL" on December 14, 2007. The foundation's goal is to provide funding for innovative, leading edge research in the field of pediatric high risk leukemia and the fungal infections children are at risk for contracting while their body's immune systems are compromised during chemotherapy treatment. Partnership for Cures and 41 & 9 Foundation have teamed up to find the research that will create treatments to improve the quality of life for children suffering from complications of ALL.
October 2008
Myelodysplastic Syndrome Research (MDS)
Partnership for Cures has recently joined forces with the family of a Chicago-based artist that will gift up to $1 million to find an effective, affordable treatment for people suffering from myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Myelodysplastic (myelo–bone marrow dysplastic –abnormal growth) syndromes are caused by abnormal blood-forming cells of the bone marrow. In MDS the bone marrow cannot produce enough healthy red blood cells, white blood cells or platelets. PFC is currently reviewing five MDS projects for this partnership.
September 2008
LUNGevity Foundation
Partnership for Cures and the LUNGevity Foundation have a history of partnering together to make a difference in medical research. The Executive and Science boards of LUNGevity have recently approved and additional $400,000 in funding through PFC for three lung cancer projects which will begin immediately. Two of these projects are at Rush University in Chicago, and the third will be at Massachusetts General in Boston. Funding for the Mass General project will build on a 2006 grant funded through a LUNGevity-PFC partnership. All three of these grants are two years in duration and all could lead directly to clinical trials on patients at or before the end of the two year research cycle.
Events
Mark Damisch Piano Concert
Mark Damisch, President (Mayor) of Northbrook, a lawyer and an internationally acclaimed concert pianist, kicked off his world tour while at the same time, helping to fund critical multiple myeloma cancer research.
The event was a wonderful success and we were overjoyed to see such a fine turnout of people interested in joining the fight against cancer and other serious illnesses. Special thanks to Steve Braun, CLU of Northwestern Mutual Financial Network for his sponsorship and continued support, to Mark Damisch for his wonderful performance and to Professor Ralph and Dolores Barnett for hosting us for a third time.
