The Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation awards research grants to some of the best scientific minds in differentiation therapy and epigenetics all over the world. Learn about the Waxman Foundation’s grant-making process and how we choose which grants to fund each year.
LISTEN online: (Length: 2 min. 7 sec.)
Nabeel Bardeesy, Ph.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center is conducting vital research in pancreatic cancer. He received a $100,000 individual grant from the Waxman Foundation in 2010 to investigate new therapeutics and was the previous recipient of a collaborative grant from the Foundation. He was also the recipient of the Randy Pausch, PhD – Pancreatic Cancer Action Network – AACR Pilot Grant in 2008. Funding from both the Waxman Foundation and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network has furthered Bardeesy’s critical work to find clues against this deadly disease.
LISTEN online: (Length: 5 min. 1 sec.)
Gwen Darien, the Executive Director of the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation, shares how she became involved in cancer research advocacy.
As an 18-year cancer survivor, Darien considers herself a beneficiary of cancer research and is keenly aware of the importance of supporting cancer research.
LISTEN online: (Length: 4 min. 40 sec.)
The Millennial Society of the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation is dedicated to raising awareness about the Foundation. The goal of the Society is to raise funds to support research in young adult cancers. Alissa Jacob, the Chair of the Millennial Society, shares why she became involved with the Society and why investing in cancer research is so crucial.
LISTEN online (Length: 4:00 minutes)
Thursday, Nov. 18 was our 13th Annual Collaborating for a Cure Benefit Dinner and Auction—also known as “The Waxman.” For the first time ever, we were SOLD OUT with about 1,400 people attending. The night was a blast, filled with an awesome live and silent auction, great food and drinks, and headlined by Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow!
Thanks to everyone who came out to show their support. Your generosity and commitment to finding a cure will help improve the lives of cancer survivors around the world.
-Michael Nierenberg
Board Chair
For more than 25 years, the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation (SWCRF) has partnered with researchers at the Shanghai Institute of Hematology (SIH) in China (pictured above) to share knowledge and speed the pace of cancer research.
Recently, on Sept. 29 and Sept. 30, scientists from the SWCRF and the SIH held a joint meeting to discuss the ongoing scientific collaboration and ways to nurture the relationship even further. The trip was filled with a wonderful spirit of collaboration, which is a hallmark of the Foundation.
The SIH delegation was led by the director of the institute, Professor Sai-Juan Chen (pictured below with her husband, China’s Minister of Health Zhu Chen). Representatives of the Foundation (pictured below) included Samuel Waxman, M.D., Arthur Zelent, Ph.D., Yongkui Jing, Ph.D., (not pictured) and Ethan Dmitrovsky, M.D.
Aside from the great conversations between researchers, some of the highlights of the trip included a visit to Shanghai Expo 2010 and Dr. Waxman being interviewed by a crew of television reporters about his work through the Foundation.
Projects and Partnerships
During the course of the meeting, researchers shared ideas how to move ahead the concept of differentiation therapy in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) and beyond.
One topic of discussion centered on how to use the large pharmacia of traditional Chinese medicines to find new agents of clinical use for differentiation therapy and treatments in other cancers. A compound already found by the SIH known as Oridonin is the basis for both mechanistic pre-clinical studies and for hypothesis-driven clinical trials now underway at the SIH. This is an exciting area of collaborative potential. Similar compounds are under study by Foundation-funded investigators in the West. We also talked about the potential for delivering arsenic therapy in APL, comparing intravenous and oral formulations for use in the disease and in other areas.
Later, researchers held a meeting with Professor Guo Chen, who is the Dean of the Medical School and Director of the Institute for Molecular Differentiation and Apoptosis. Dr. Chen, who previously worked with Dr. Waxman in New York, enthusiastically supports a collaboration between the two organizations and offered to host a future meeting at his Institute to develop new differentiation therapies.
The Chinese Minister of Health Zhu Chen (pictured at left with Samuel Waxman) met with the SWCRF scientists and offered to organize a team of Chinese scientists and pharmaceutical leaders to work with the Foundation and representatives from Europe to design targeted epigenetic agents, such as new generation retinoid drugs to seek and destroy cancer stem cells.
Leaders from the major regional academic medical centers as well as national scientists, including members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, attended a meeting to discuss ways to collaborate even more with the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation.
The joint SWCRF-SIH scientific conference ended as all previous meetings have—with a spirit of redoubling efforts to produce even more productive scientific exchanges in the future and to hold other scientific conferences together, both in China and in the U.S.
Stephen Baylin, M.D., a professor in oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, is a pioneer in the field of epigenetics. He discusses how researchers are learning the way genes are turned on and off to deliver therapies to cancer patients in a new way.
LISTEN online (Length: 4 min. 50 sec.)
Fundraising Goal: $3,500
Age: 49
Bio: This year marks my second marathon effort for Team Waxman. However, as the former owner of Zoe restaurant in SoHo and Jovia and Cena restaurants as well, I have had the pleasure of working with the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation for many years and have always enjoyed supporting this great cause.
Last year I wrote of my wife Thalia’s experiences with breast cancer and how it impacted our family’s lives. I am thrilled to say once again she is cancer free and as a family she, Cena and I continue to appreciate how fortunate she really is.
Sadly I can’t share those feelings about my dad – Stefano, who succumbed to lung cancer this past summer. After two months being treated for what what his local doctors in North Carolina had though was a sinus infection, then pneumonia- a chest x-ray revealed a 4 cm spot on his left lung. A subsequent biopsy confirmed the worst. Within days he was brought to New York under the care of Dr. Waxman and his colleagues at Mount Sinai. Unfortunately his condition was so advance that he was hospitalized shortly after his arrival, the cancer having metastasized to his brain and other areas. Treatments did little to slow his cancer’s advance, illustrating the darkest side of this terrible disease. Dr. Waxman and the staff associated with my father’s treatment were nothing short of amazing, showing care and compassion throughout what was an impossible situation. The facility and attention my father received at Mount Sinai was second to none.
Tragically I witnessed a once healthy and vibrant man deteriorate into a shell of his former self. From prognosis to his passing a mere six months elapsed. His profession as a contractor and smoking cigarettes in post-war Italy may have contributed to his illness, breathing in cement dust and other potential carcinogens. However, he loved what he did. Anyone that remembers Zoe only had to look at his handy work in the beautiful tile installation over our open kitchen or the plaster fresco on it’s walls. He was steadfast, proud and incredibly resilient.
Once again, on Sunday, November 7, 2010, I will be fortunate enough to join 40,000 other passionate athletes to run one of the world’s greatest Marathons through the world’s greatest city – The ING New York City Marathon – 26.2 miles through all five boroughs of the Big Apple. Ten runners including myself will represent Team Waxman and The Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation. Each of us will be reaching out to our friends, family and colleagues to raise money to aid cancer research.
I hope you will help support mine and the entire Team Waxman’s marathon effort by clicking the link below and giving your support. Please remember to select my name from the list of team members on the drop down window. I look forward to seeing you at the finish line!
Stephen would like to thank the following donors:
Joseph Albanese
Arthur Backal
Kenneth Blatt
Andrew Brown
Brenda Cahill
Steve Cohen
Cyndia Coll
Bob and Sandy Drake
Patricia Enright
FJC: A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds
John J. Fragiacomo
James Glenister
Matthew Gold
Janet E. Goldman
R. Anthony Goldman
Andrew Gwyther
Douglas Halliday
Scott Ingham
Kallas Family Partnership LP
Lois A. Jackson DDS PC
Nick, Jodie, Raquel and Kira Kallas
Ianthe Kallas-Bortz
Jonathan Katz
Kishin Kirpalani
Robert Koweek
G. Mark Meyers
Margaret Moore
Elaine Natalicchi
Tracy Nieporent
Numan Numan
Michael F. Parlamis
Sandra Perucci
Adam Price
Sal Puleio
Christopher Ryan
Michael Salzhauer
Myles Share
Denise A. Simicic
Ursula Simicic
Linda Stein
Eugene Sturtz
Turon Travel
Cancer researcher Robert A. Weinberg, Ph.D., co-founder of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Mass., who discovered the first human oncogene, explains the importance of cancer stem cells and the role they play in the spread of cancer, including breast cancer.
LISTEN online (Length: 7 min, 10 sec.)
