Research

Dr. Steven Zeitels is the director and founder of the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Laryngeal Surgery and Voice Rehabilitation.  He received two designated grants from The V Foundation in 2010 and 2012.  Dr. Zeitels has pioneered methods to help singers like Adele sing again. Read more about his work. 

Dr. Reuben Harris and Dr. Douglas Yee from the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center received a 2012 Translational grant from The V Foundation.  Their work with others over the years has led to the discovery of an enzyme (A3B for short) that is the probable source of many genetic mutations in breast cancer.  If scientists can find a way to block this enzyme, it may slow or stop the cancer from growing.  Harris and Yee’s research was recently written about in the Star Tribune and can be found here. 

Andrea Richardson, Ph.D., M.D. (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) is working in a lab that received a 2008 Translational Grant from The V Foundation.  Richardson’s lab is working on an innovative therapy technique that has proven results in shrinking tumors in patients with what’s known as triple-negative breast cancer.   Richardson and her co-researchers released a report on their findings in the April edition of Cancer Discovery. 

Steven Grant, M.D. (Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center) was the recipient of a 2007 V Foundation Designated Grant and his lab recently discovered a drug combination that might lead to a new therapy for acute myeloid leukemia. Grant and his co-researchers found that obatoclax and sorafenib work together to reduce the growth and survival rates of several types of cancer cells.   Grant said he is looking forward to translating the lab’s findings into clinical trials where doctors can bring a new and potentially more effective treatment to patients suffering from acute myeloid leukemia. 

Matthew Petroski, Ph.D. (Sanford-Burnham Institute for Medical Research) received a V Scholar Grant from The V Foundation in 2008. Petroski recently helped discover a cell mutation that prevents the drug MLN4924 from successfully killing cancer cells.  By establishing the particular mutation that causes cell immunity to MLN4924, researchers might be able to develop more personalized cancer therapies for patients. Petroski co-authored a report on his findings which detailed why the research is so important to cancer research.  He said these new therapy techniques are already being used in numerous clinical trials focused on cancers such as myeloma, leukemia and lymphoma. 

Minkui Luo, Ph.D., (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center) a 2009 V Scholar Grant recipient, is now studying a protein — Methotransvase — and the role it plays in ovarian cancer, leukemia and melanoma. Luo said The V Foundation’s support has allowed him to do high risk, high reward work. Luo said the goal of his lab is developing a drug that can attack and slow the cancer cells, which could lead to a cure for cancer or other cancer-related diseases.  

Michel Sadelain, Ph.D., M.D. (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center) received a Designated Grant from The V Foundation in 2005 and is now working on cell engineering techniques that have been able to recognize and kill tumor cells. Sadelain said The V Foundations was the first to recognize and support this type of research and it’s now being explored in cancer centers around the world. Due in part to The V Foundation’s funding, Sadelain’s lab research is being implemented in six clinical trials at Sloan-Kettering. Five of the trials are focused on child and adult leukemia and the most recent involves prostate [...]

Johanna Joyce, Ph.D. (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center) was awarded a V Scholar Grant in 2005 and is now working on a study that will seek to find ways to slow the metastasis process — how tumor cells spread from the organ in which they originate to other parts of the body. Joyce said The V Foundation’s support gave her the confidence and recognition she needed to establish her lab at Sloan-Kettering. Joyce’s lab is focused on understanding the complex metastasis process of brain tumors. She said without the help of The V Foundation, she and other researchers trying to begin their research [...]

Leonard Zon, Ph.D., M.D. (Children’s Hospital Boston) was awarded a V Foundation Translational Grant in 2011. Zon, who is the director of the Children’s Stem Cell program at the hospital, is working with zebrafish to determine chemicals that target and slow the growth of melanoma cancer cells. By looking at widespread melanoma tumors in zebrafish, Zon and his research team were able to identify a new melanoma gene named SETDB1. He is widely recognized for his work in the genetic modification of  zebrafish for the study of specific diseases. With the help of funding from The V Foundation, Zon’s lab discovered [...]

Ravi Salgia, Ph.D., M.D. (The University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center) a 2003 V Foundation Designated Scholar, recently worked with other researchers and doctors at Chicago to publish a 2012 study on a new type of radiation therapy that might control the growth and spread of non-small cell lung cancer that has not spread widely. Salgia and his co-investigators found that hypofractionated image-guided radiation therapy can contain individual tumors and might lead to the improvement of long-term progression-free survival rates in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. For the study, image-guided radiation therapy was administered in several large doses over [...]