FIGHT BACK against OVARIAN CANCER: SHE COULD DO ANYTHING

Thursday, February 7, 2013

MRC RESEARCH GRANTS

Why I married here: she could do anything. 1967
Most likely a car load of college boys came by 12 seconds later.
I know I would have stopped

Encouraged by the Comment of my granddaughter Amanda, from time to time I am going to “profile” one or another of the cancer researchers we at the Marsha Rivkin Center help support. We (MRC) offer support in three categories, but it is clear that each emphasizes innovation. We try to identify people who may have spied an incipient crack in the armour (of ovarian cancer), and then help them pry it open. Once they are inside, we leave it to the far deeper pockets of the NIH to fight the war. To me – I had no part in the design of any of our programs – this seems to be a remarkably promising approach. I wish I were 30 again and a biochemist; I’d rather be one of those smart young people than simply an old guy writing about them. But, you do what you can with what you’ve got.

Rather than jumping right in, I will describe the kinds of grants we award. In ascending order of dollars available, and – probably – difficulty in getting funded: we award Scientific Scholar Awards, Pilot Study Grants, and Challenge Grants.

Scientific Scholar Awards: These go to young, bright, early-career scientists. The purpose is to enable them to try out new ideas (which the young have in profusion, I am told – I can't remember.) Needless to say, the ideas chosen have relevance to ovarian cancer. A grant amounts to $60,000 for one year, which isn’t much these days but may make the difference between trying out an idea and shrugging it off. This year (2012, actually) we gave out three of these, to young women in England, Canada, and the United States.

Pilot Studies: These are worth $75,000 for one year. In 2012 we awarded ten of them. I gather that the successful applicants tend to be better established in their field, but need help and encouragement in developing some novel approach to ovarian cancer. One of these awards went to a scientist in Helsinki.

Challenge Grants: I don’t precisely understand the nature of this award, so I will simply quote what is said in the MRC Website: “Challenge grants in scientific research revolve around posing a grand scientific question to the research community and asking researchers to submit their best ideas for meeting the challenge with creative solutions. With help from our Scientific Advisory Board, the Rivkin Center will identify areas in ovarian cancer research in which the greatest strides can be made today and offer a 2-year, $150,000 Challenge Grant to the research group that proposes the best solution.”

The 2011-2013 MRC Challenge Grant was awarded to Dr. David Bowtell, who works in Melbourne, Australia. Dr. Bowtell is testing the hypothesis that ovarian tumors, especially of the most lethal type – serous – leak pieces of DNA into the blood-stream in quantities sufficient to serve as an early marker of the disease. Specifically, he is looking at a mutated version of the gene TP53, which apparently is associated with numerous kinds of cancer. Incidentally, it appears that serous “ovarian” cancer originates in the fallopian tubes.

Regarding Dr. Bowtell’s very important work: as an Aussie friend of mine was fond of saying, “Goodonyah”!