Posted on February 2, 2012

Starr Foundation Awards $55 Million to the Starr Cancer Consortium

The New York City-based Starr Foundation has announced a $55 million renewal gift to the Starr Cancer Consortium.

Created in 2006, SCC is a collaborative project of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Rockefeller University, and Weill Cornell Medical College. The consortium, which conducts research involving investigators from two or more participating institutions, works to leverage the strengths of its member institutions, including one-of-a-kind experience in applying the power of genomics to biomedical problems, proven expertise in cancer genetics in humans and animals, a strong clinical operation, and a vast collection of cancer specimens.

To date, SCC researchers have discovered how a new melanoma drug works and why it stops working in some patients, conducted the first large-scale study to explore inherited copy number variations in prostate cancer, and culled insights into the metabolism of cancer cells.

"[The Starr Cancer Consortium] has proved to us that collaboration leads to more rapid advancement of cancer research from the laboratory bench to clinical applications," said Starr Foundation chair Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg. "In the past five years, we have seen numerous examples in which consortium scientists from different laboratories and different research institutions have inspired each other to pursue novel paths to understanding cancers and optimizing treatments."