Damon Runyon News

Mark W. Zimmerman, PhD (Damon Runyon-Sohn Fellow ’14-’18) and colleagues at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, have identified mechanisms that drive about 10 percent of high-risk neuroblastoma cases. Neuroblastoma is the most common solid tumor affecting infants and young children with few effective treatment options. The researchers found that a protein called c-MYC could cause neuroblastoma, when it is produced at abnormally high levels in tumor cells in a zebrafish model. They also found that chromosomes had breaks and rearrangements near the gene producing c-MYC.

When young scientists earn a Damon Runyon award, they join one of science’s most prestigious and collaborative communities, a community dedicated to fostering the next generation of breakthrough cancer researchers.  Former Damon Runyon fellow in the 1980s, Jim Wells, PhD, Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at UCSF and a member of our Board of Directors has mentored seven Damon Runyon Fellows, all of whom have gone on to highly successful careers in biomedical research.

We recently sat down with Jim to discuss how mentorship shaped his own career and why he continues to bring Damon Runyon fellows into his lab.

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) will honor 19 individuals with awards in recognition of their extraordinary scientific achievements in a wide range of fields spanning the physical, biological, and medical sciences.  Congratulations to Damon Runyon alumnus and mentor Howard Y. Chang, MD, PhD (Damon Runyon Scholar ‘06-‘08), of Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, who will receive the 2018 NAS Award in Molecular Biology for the discovery of long noncoding RNAs and the invention of genomic technologies.

In Time Magazine's The Boss, successful women like Damon Runyon's Lorraine Egan share how they reached the top and the lessons they learned along the way.

At the end of last year, Norman E. Sharpless, M.D., was appointed Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI).  In this critically important role, he oversees the federal government’s $6 billion annual investment in cancer research.  We know him well, as Dr. Sharpless has served on the selection committee for the Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award.  

The Damon Runyon-Jake Wetchler Award for Pediatric Innovation is given annually to a third-year Damon Runyon Fellow whose research has the greatest potential to impact the prevention, diagnosis or treatment of pediatric cancer. In its second year, Amanda Balboni Iniguez, PhD, received the award at the annual Fellows' Retreat.

Damon Runyon Broadway Tickets offers Broadway’s best seats and the opportunity to support cutting edge cancer research at the same time.

Some of our most loyal customers, like Rocco Staino, have been purchasing their Broadway tickets through us for years or even decades. Mr. Staino is the retired director of the Keefe Library of the North Salem School District in New York, and a contributing editor for School Library Journal and also writes for the Huffington Post.

Craig J. Ceol, PhD (Damon Runyon Fellow '05-'07) of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, and colleagues, have identified a new protein that is involved in metastatic melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer. The protein, GDF6, is part of a class of proteins called “growth differentiation factors” that helps cells divide and differentiate into specific cell types. Looking at human melanoma cells, the researchers found that 80 percent of patient tumors had elevated levels of GDF6 and these higher levels correlated to the aggressiveness of the cancer.

Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation President and Chief Executive Officer recently spoke with the Huffington Post about current challenges and opportunities in cancer research.

Is America losing the opportunity to finally cure cancer? Maybe.

Chuan He, PhD (Damon Runyon Fellow '00-'02) of the University of Chicago, Chicago, was named one of this year's winners of the 2017 Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research. The award recognizes promising investigators aged 45 or younger at the time of nomination for their efforts in advancing cancer research.