Charles Kaufman thinks zebrafish could be the key to fighting melanoma.
Kaufman, a physician and an associate professor at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, is using transparent zebrafish to see how melanoma cells grow and change in real time. Zebrafish share more than 70% of their genes with humans, and studying how tumors develop in zebrafish could help doctors better detect and treat melanoma skin cancer.
It's an innovative idea, but difficult to get off the ground without funding. That's where Chicago-based Cancer Research Foundation comes in. Last year the organization gave Kaufman and four other cancer scientists each a $75,000 grant to help grow their early-stage cancer research into potential game-changing breakthroughs in cancer prevention and treatment.
Founded more than 60 years ago, the Cancer Research Foundation calls itself a group of "cancer research venture capitalists" who provide seed funding to scientists and researchers who show promising work in treating cancer. While the nonprofit sources people with big ideas, the Cancer Research Foundation isn't a VC fund in the traditional sense. Its grant funding doesn't come with any equity stake, and there's no financial return on their investment.
"The only return for us is (seeing scientists) really just move the needle in prevention or towards a cure," said Carlo Navarro, director of digital strategy and executive director at the Chicago chapter of the Cancer Research Foundation. "They need to have some proven results or data to be able to go after major research grants, but they can't necessarily do that without (early stage) funding. We come in very early and seed them the money to get started."
Since cancer scientists and researchers can't provide a quick return on investment like startups in other fields, innovative cancer initiatives often struggle to secure funding through traditional sources. The Cancer Research Foundation is able to provide the $75,000 grants--dispersed over two years--to around four to five researchers a year, though they aim to boost those numbers in the future, Navarro said.
Since its inception, the organization has funded over 170 cancer scientists. One of its more notable investments was in Janet Rowley, a cancer scientists and professor at the University of Chicago who fundamentally changed the way we understand cancer by proving the disease is also genetic, not just environmental. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the Obama White House in 2009.
"Cancer scientists themselves, they’re entrepreneurs in their own right," Navarro said.
But that's not to say that traditional venture capitalists steer clear of cancer startups. In fact, equity funding in cancer therapeutics startups grew more than 150% from 2014 to 2015, from $1.1 billion to $2.8 billion. And Grail, a San Fransisco startup founded by University of Illinois alumnus Jeff Huber that's building blood tests that can catch cancer early, announced it's planning raise $1 billion in venture capital.
But as cancer researchers look to get their early-stage ideas off the ground, grant funding from places like the Cancer Research Foundation can be an effective way to pay for the heavy upfront costs of lab equipment and hiring a team needed to turn a proposal into a reality.
"Cancer changes all the time," Navarro said. "You have this moving target all the time. Scientists are entrepreneurial and innovative in how they think about approaching research, particularly with technology."
