July 10, 2002
Dunkin' Donuts Rising Stars — top
cancer researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute — threw out
first pitch at Fenway Park, June 26
A team of 10 Rising Stars at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute gained the spotlight when the first pitch was thrown at Fenway Park on June 26. These top cancer researchers — supported by a grant to the Jimmy Fund by Dunkin' Donuts franchisees in New England - will be in the winner's column when the cures for cancer are found.
These Dunkin' Donuts Rising Stars, who are conducting cutting-edge cancer research at Dana-Farber, were granted the privilege to throw out the first pitch before the Boston Red Sox-Cleveland Indians game by Boston Red Sox President (and former Dana-Farber Cancer Institute patient) Larry Lucchino. The team included: Lynda Chin, MD, Kornelia Polyak, MD, PhD, and Ramesh Shivdasani, MD, PhD, of Brookline; David Frank, MD, PhD, of Lexington; William Hahn, MD, PhD, and Stephanie Lee, MD, MPH, of Newton; Matt Meyerson, MD, PhD, of Concord; Geoff Shapiro, MD, PhD, of Boston; Jonathan Friedberg, MD, of Winchester; and Ted Alyea, MD, of Sherborn.
Lucchino noted that the attention attached to baseball would help advance the work that the researchers do. Recollecting his own treatment for cancer at Dana-Farber in 1985, Lucchino said, "There was a sense of hope and possibility; the best minds were working on ideas that might somehow save people from the sense of fear and desperation I was feeling at the time."
With three of the 10 foreign-born (China, Hungary, and India) and all with more experience in the laboratory than on a baseball field, they held a contest to determine which one would get the actual honors to throw the pitch. Appropriately (since the game was against the Cleveland Indians), Dr. Bill Hahn of Akron, Ohio, who played baseball throughout his youth, was chosen to represent the group.
The Dunkin' Donuts Rising Stars Program was established in 1998 with a five-year, $2.5 million grant to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Funding for the program comes from Dunkin' Donuts customers and franchise owners across the Northeast. Rising Stars receive awards ranging from $35,000 to $100,000 per year to support research that often is in its early stages, but is deemed to hold significant promise. This year's "class" was chosen after an open competition in which young researchers were invited to submit project proposals to a review committee of senior investigators at Dana-Farber.
The Dunkin' Donuts Rising Stars are studying the following:Alyea's research focuses on developing methods to use the donor's immune system to fight and eliminate leukemia after bone marrow transplantation.
The Chin lab is using genomic approaches in well-defined mouse models to understand the genetic alterations that underly tumor genesis and maintenance, with an emphasis on melanoma and brain tumors.
The Polyak lab is using genomic technologies to discover new genes and pathways implicated in breast cancer.
Meyerson's lab is using gene-based methods to understand human lung cancer.
Frank's lab is studying molecular therapies and their effects on tumor growth, immune system functions, and angiogenesis (blood vessel development) in tumors.
Shapiro's lab is exploring kinases, enzymes that control the growth and proliferation of cells. In cancer cells, these enzymes are overactive.
Hahn's research is focusing on understanding how particular combinations of genetic alterations cooperate to transform normal cells into cancer cells.
Lee's research is focusing on improving outcome of bone marrow and stem cell transplants for hematologic malignancies.
Friedberg's research is focusing on developing a method to use a patient's own immune system to fight Hodgkin's disease.
Shivdasani's lab studies how the intestine develops in the fetus and how this process relates to colon cancer.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is one of the world's premier cancer care and research centers. Internationally renown for blending basic and clinical cancer research and bringing new treatments from the laboratory to the patient's bedside, Dana-Farber is a principal teaching affiliate of the Harvard Medical School. For more information about Dunkin' Donuts' support of research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, visit www.dana-farber.org.
