Sometimes when I need a lift I go to the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) website (prostatecancerfoundation.org) to see what research projects they are funding. (You go to PCF, click on “About us” and then “Where the money goes”.) Then I’m assured that some of the best minds in the best institutions are working hard to find a cure for prostate cancer.
PCF, founded by Michael Milken, is by far the world’s largest prostate cancer charity. They have raised more than $350 million for PC research and have funded 800 projects in 200 insitutions. Every year PCF awards a certain number of “Challenge Grants” to promising researchers. They have just announced this year’s winners who will share a pot of $19 million. PCF, maybe because it was founded by an entrepreneur, is very selective about the projects it funds. Their focus is on research that will yield results that are easily translatable to clinical practice. They state (on the PCF website):
Eight programs representing 18 leading research institutions and 36 researchers have been selected as part of the PCF’s 2008 Challenge Awards. These awards invest in larger, multi-year projects with high potential for solving problems associated with advanced prostate cancer.
If you are interested to know what is on the cutting edge, you should read about the winning research proposals on the PCF website or click on the above link. I am not posting the information here because it is too complicated for the average reader to understand. But I can tell you that the research being funded covers a broad array of topics, including nutrition, immunotherapy, biomarkers and stem cells. The stem cell research is particularly exciting because scientists have only recently discovered that c