Who We Fund

Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure has awarded more than $16 million in research funding to highly qualified research investigators and physician-scientists from 42 institutions.

We partner with medical research centers, early-stage biotechnology companies and large multi-national pharmaceutical companies.  These partners all share a vision of driving translational research and moving treatments as fast as possible from basic discovery to the clinic.

2011 Brain Tumor Research Grants

Duke University Medical Center - Dr. Hai Yan
Developing Novel Approaches to Target Glioma: Exploration of IDH1/2 mutations

University of California Los Angeles  - Dr. Linda Liau
Optimizing Dendritic Cell Vaccination for Low-Grade Glioma Patients

The Florida Center for Brain Tumor Research (FCBTR) Partnership:

• Scripps Research Institute Florida - Dr. Vanessa Saunders
      Interplay between EGFRvIII and c-Met in Glioblastoma Multiforme
• University of Florida - Dr. Jeffrey Harrison
      Targeting Chemokine Receptors in Glioblastoma: Redefining the Functions of CXCR4 and CXCR7 on Glioma Stem Cells
• MD Anderson Orlando - Dr. Don Eslin
      Nifurtimox and radiation for medulloblastoma therapy
• Florida State University - Dr. Eric Laywell
      Improving Glioma Treatment with Adaptive Therapy

The Diffuse Intrinsic Pointine Glioma (DIPG) Preclinical Consortium - Dr. Charles Keller, Oregon Health & Science University
Rapid Preclinical Development of a Targeted Therapy Combination for DIPG

Regulus Therapeutics/Samsung Medical Center
Advancing microRNA Therapeutics for Glioblastoma

Click here to review our 2010 Brain Tumor Research Grants.

Investments In Industry

To encourage companies to develop new therapies, we invest in early stage clinical work to test whether a particular drug might be effective in treating brain cancer.  Our investments are designed to accelerate clinical trials and catalyze further investments to bring more effective treatments to patients.

	Agios Pharmaceuticals is a Boston based biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel therapeutics in the emerging field of cancer metabolism. ABC2‘s investment is enabling Agios to explore whether the mutated IDH1 gene has an enzyme activity consistent with a cancer-causing gene, or oncogene. This work stems from a breakthrough discovery which showed that the mutated form of IDH1 produces a metabolite, which may contribute to the formation and malignant progression of gliomas. Agios is investigating opportunities to develop therapies for brain cancer and other cancers where IDH1 mutations are present using new drugs that can target the IDH1 metabolic pathway.
	While brain cancer survival rates for non-GBM tumors are rising, many of the life saving treatments that account for this progress can have a negative impact on cognitive function among survivors. Unfortunately, the rehabilitation approaches currently in use are quite limited and can leave survivors ill equipped to cope with the cognitive demands of their daily life. ABC2 is working with Honeywell to develop a rehabilitation system that monitors a user’s ability to process information. The system would initially help retrain the brain by providing real-time assistance when cognitive demands exceed a person’s available processing capacity. “Aug Cog,” as the technology is called, builds on research first conducted for the military’s R&D lab DARPA as part of the “Super Soldier Program.”
	Regulus Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company leading the discovery and development of innovative medicines targeting microRNAs. In 2011, ABC2 partnered with Regulus and Samsung Medical Center to support the initiation of a new discovery effort in microRNA therapeutics for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most common and aggressive brain tumor in humans. Regulus will apply its expertise in microRNA therapeutics to discover chemically modified oligonucleotide anti-miRs for testing at the Samsung Medical Center in preclinical models that mimic human brain cancer.
	Tocagen is a San Diego based biotech company, which is developing a virally-based drug delivery and treatment system for brain cancer. Tocagen’s technology uses a virus that will selectively spread in cancer tissue, while not harming normal tissue. Specifically, the virus will only grow in dividing cells or in the case of the brain, only cancer cells. Tocagen’s system delivers a non-toxic prodrug version of a classic anti-cancer agent which is metabolized inside the tumor cell to become the true cytotoxic agent. Tocagen believes this therapeutic gene will behave like a Trojan horse killing the tumor cells from within without exposing the patient to high levels of chemotherapy that often cause toxicity.