The Huntsman Cancer Institute, marking its 10th anniversary in September, is celebrating with a breather from some of its potential funding concerns.
To commemorate the anniversary, philanthropists Jon and Karen Huntsman donated a large sum to professorships that five HCI researchers will receive. Each year during the next five years, the Huntsman family will contribute $375,000–$75,000 for each researcher–a sum that will almost reach $2 million in the end. Mary Beckerle, director of HCI, announced the donation during a lecture June 10.
These professorships are meant for the researchers to continue their research on cancer and provide them with the funds to save lives, said U President Michael Young in a statement.
The professors receiving the funds are Bradley Cairns, Anita Kinney, Stephen Lessnick, Leigh Neumayer and Sunil Sharma.
Beckerle described each of the doctors as “a leader in developing HCI’s research programs”.
Lessnick, who specializes in pediatrics, said he is excited and hopeful that the funds will boost research in his department. The money he receives will go toward studying Ewing’s sarcoma, a type of bone cancer that affects children.
“There is just not much funding to do this kind of work,” Lessnick said in a statement. He said that large donations like these allow them to do more innovative and high-risk research. Normally, the National Institutes of Health provides the researchers with grants, but only if a required amount of preliminary data is provided.
Now the researchers are more autonomous and will not have to compete as often for funding against rivals across the country.
The other recipient doctors did not respond for comment.