June 26, 2000
Dana-Farber scientist receives first-ever Kirsch Foundation Medical Investigator Award
Ronald DePinho, MD, honored for groundbreaking research
The Steven and Michele Kirsch Foundation has announced that Ronald A. DePinho, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, is one of four recipients of its first-ever medical Investigator Awards program. DePinho was awarded $450,000 over the next three years to continue his groundbreaking research in telomere attrition and its relationship to cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. Dana-Farber will also receive an additional $90,000 to support his work over the same time period.
DePinho and his colleagues recently showed the first proof that erosion of tiny, DNA strands called telomeres that limit the number of times cells may divide, may cause cirrhosis of the liver-the world's seventh leading cause of death by disease. In addition, DePinho has demonstrated numerous other conditions related to the whittling away of telomeres--including certain age-related disorders and the development of cancer.
The Kirsch Foundation awarded DePinho for this innovative line of work in hopes that his telomere research may lead to new therapies designed to impact on human diseases arising from chronic cellular destruction and regeneration.
"The Kirsch Foundation award will enable continued research into this complicated and promising area of genetic research," said DePinho, scientific director of Transgenesis and Gene Targeting at Dana-Farber. "By reversing the course of telomere shortening it may be possible to not only treat people with liver cancer and cirrhosis, but prevent these diseases from developing altogether."
We are delighted to support such highly-regarded and leading-edge researchers," said Kathleen Gwynn, president and CEO of the Kirsch Foundation. "Each investigator works in an area of medical research that has already demonstrated the potential for significant breakthroughs."
"We focus our funding on curing diseases, rather than treatments," continued Steve Kirsch, the Foundation's chairman of the Board. "Recipients of these awards, share that same passion."
DePinho has been recognized as a leader in the use of engineered mouse models to uncover the molecular and biological processes that lead to the development of cancer. He and his colleagues have produced cancer models that have allowed detailed analysis of the complex host-tumor cell interactions required for tumor existence.
DePinho joined Dana-Farber and Harvard Medical School in 1998, after a distinguished career in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. DePinho's honors and awards include the coveted American Cancer Society Research Professorship, the Cancer Research Institute Scholar Award, the Melini Award for Biomedical Excellence and the James S. McDonnell Scholar Award.
Three Californian researchers also received Kirsch Foundation awards: Dr. Ben A. Barres, Stanford School of Medicine; Dr. Elizabeth H. Blackburn, University of California, San Francisco; and Dr. Alexander J. Varshavsky, California Institute of Technology. DePinho was the only researcher outside California to receive the Foundation's award.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (www.dana-farber.org) is a principle teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School and is among the leading cancer research and care centers in the United States. It is the only cancer center in New England to be both a federally designated Comprehensive Cancer Center and a Center for AIDS research.
The Kirsch Foundation (www.kirschfoundation.org) is committed to an extensive array of issues and causes including curing cancer and other major diseases and environmental issues. Approximately half of the Foundation's annual grant making is focused on medical and scientific research.
