November 14, 2006
Dana-Farber/Harvard Medical School receive initial $20 million from Ludwig Fund to establish center to research and develop targeted cancer treatments
George D. Demetri, MD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School have been awarded an initial $20 million grant from the Virginia and D. K. Ludwig Fund for Cancer Research to establish the Ludwig Center at Dana-Farber/Harvard Medical School to support and accelerate laboratory and translational research of targeted cancer treatments.
The Ludwig Fund is awarding six $20 million grants to establish a network of Ludwig Centers at select academic centers in the United States. In addition to Dana-Farber/HMS, the other institutions are Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York; Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif; and University of Chicago.
"The impact of this gift cannot be overstated," said George D. Demetri, MD, who has been appointed director of the Ludwig Center at Dana-Farber/HMS. "At a time when federal funding for cancer research is stagnating, the Ludwig Fund has made a long-term commitment to support innovation and collaboration, allowing researchers here at Dana-Farber and across the Ludwig Center network the freedom to follow where science leads them. It has the potential to dramatically enhance how we conduct cancer research."
Demetri has led some of the earliest pivotal clinical trials to demonstrate that molecularly-designed therapies targeting a mutant protein can extend cancer patient survival. He was instrumental in the development and testing of mechanism-targeted therapies of drugs such as Gleevec and Sutent for gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST).
"Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is recognized throughout the world for its development of new therapies for cancer," said Lloyd Old, MD, chair of the Ludwig Fund Trustees. "Dr. George Demetri has made outstanding contributions to this tradition by successfully linking the strengths of the laboratory, the clinic and the pharmaceutical industry to forge novel and effective cancer therapies. The Trustees hope that the creation of Ludwig Cancer, with its global collaborative network of Ludwig Centers and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, will provide Dr. Demetri and his excellent colleagues at Dana-Farber with exciting opportunities to achieve new dimensions in the understanding and control of human cancer."
With their backgrounds in translational research, Demetri and his colleagues throughout Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center will bring a clinical perspective to the basic laboratory research conducted at the other five Ludwig Centers. The Dana-Farber/HMS team will design and conduct drug development studies focused on abnormal signaling in cancer cells, linking basic scientific studies with clinical application.
"Our main strength is applied cancer research, work that brings basic scientists and clinical researchers together to translate laboratory insights into clinical tools," said Demetri, who is also the director of Dana-Farber's Center for Sarcoma and Bone Oncology and a faculty member at HMS. "We plan to infuse that strength into the Ludwig Cancer network."
Based in New York, the Ludwig Fund was established by the late American businessman and billionaire Daniel K. Ludwig, who donated the majority of his wealth to fund cancer research. The new centers will work with the international Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR), which Ludwig established in 1971 and has expended more than $1.1 billion of its own funds in support of cancer research since its inception. The current grants totaling $120 million - and further distributions from the Ludwig Fund - should ensure that each of the six centers receives annual funds of approximately $2 million in perpetuity.
The six centers and the LICR fulfill Ludwig's vision of a nationwide network capable of leveraging the unique strengths of each institution, facilitating strong partnerships among affiliated investigators, and raising public awareness of the importance of collaborative cancer research.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (www.dana-farber.org) is a principal teaching affiliate of the Harvard Medical School and is among the leading cancer research and care centers in the United States. It is a founding member of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC), designated a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute.
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