Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence
Focused on Therapy Response (CCNE-TR)

Private Foundations

The CCNE-TR investigators are convinced that our relationships with Cancer Foundations will help to accomplish several goals. They will likely bring in additional funding to our vision as we start to produce initial results from each Project. More importantly, they will allow us to educate other cancer researchers that are supported by the foundations as well as educate the lay-public about the significance and relevance of our nanotechnologies focused towards therapeutic monitoring. We have significant relationships with two foundations, The Prostate Cancer Foundation (formerly CaPCure) and the Canary Foundation, both of which are described in more detail below.

Prostate Cancer Foundation

This foundation started by Mike Milken in 1993 has made very significant impacts to the prostate cancer research community and more recently to cancer in general. Mr. Milken has personally donated millions of dollars towards prostate cancer research. The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) is the world's largest philanthropic source of support for prostate cancer research. It has raised more than $230 million and provided funding for prostate cancer research to more than 1,200 researchers at 100 institutions worldwide. The PCF has a simple, yet urgent goal: to find better treatments and a cure for recurrent prostate cancer. The PCF solicits donations from corporations, individuals and others to support prostate cancer research. The PCF then awards grants to leading cancer researchers searching for new prostate cancer treatments and ways to better understand the disease. Additionally, It serves as a convener, sponsoring an annual Scientific Retreat that brings together research scientists, physicians, government officials, biopharmaceutical industry executives and others for intensive discussions and presentations designed to accelerate progress toward a cure for prostate cancer. In addition, the PCF has created a Therapy Consortium, a group of eight leading cancer research centers that work together to facilitate faster prostate cancer research. The PCF also engages in public activism, spearheading greater awareness of prostate cancer and the need for increased governmental focus on prostate cancer research. Since the PCF was founded 11 years ago, U.S. government funding for prostate cancer research has increased 20-fold, with annual appropriations now in excess of $500 million.

Both Drs. Agus and Gambhir have previously been funded by the PCF and both have been involved with it for many years. Dr. Agus continues to have significant relationships with the PCF and is the Principal Investigator of one of the seven clinical consortium sites around the country. We will be able to leverage resources at the PCF by using it to:

i) educate the prostate cancer community about use of nanotechnology for therapy monitoring,
ii) network with prostate cancer scientists throughout the country,
iii) work with it to educate prostate cancer patients and most importantly other researchers and clinicians in the field of prostate cancer,
iv) to raise additional funding for this CCNE-TR.

We have discussed all of these issues with Mike Milken (Co-Founder and Chairman), Craig Dionne (Chief Scientific Officer and head of the PCF Clinical Consortium) and Stuart Holden (Co-founder and Chief Medical Officer) in detail, and they are highly supportive.

Canary Foundation

This foundation, started in 2004 by Don Listwin, focuses on early detection of Cancer. Mr. Listwin was Vice President of Cisco Systems and CEO of Open Wave Technologies, but now works full time heading up his foundation. He has personally donated tens of millions of dollars to the Fred Hutch Cancer Center and to Stanford University. Mr. Listwin is highly supportive of technology and views this CCNE-TR as an excellent way to bridge scientists of several types in technologies that should eventually be useful for early cancer detection. Mr. Listwin will serve on the CCNE-TR Center Steering Committee as the Public Advocate Representative. Drs. Gambhir, Hanash, Brown, and Hartwell all serve on the six-member Canary Scientific Advisory Board and are also involved in this CCNE-TR. We will work with the Canary Foundation to reach out to the cancer community focused on early cancer detection. Although we acknowledge that our technologies will not likely impact early detection in the short run, we are optimistic that they will do so in the long run. Furthermore we will leverage many of the growing resources of this foundation as a vehicle for public outreach. The Canary Foundation is launching an unprecedented campaign to call attention to the need for increased research in early detection, and to raise funds to support research by some of the world's leading cancer researchers through:

i) Professional conferences
ii) Fundraising events
iii) Web-based activism
iv) Strategic alliances and corporate sponsorships and
v) Major event marketing programs (e.g., NASCAR racing events).