Apr 6 2009
The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) today announced that it has funded ten Creativity Awards for advanced prostate cancer research. These one-year awards are designed to support innovative ideas that have the potential to achieve breakthroughs for the detection and treatment of prostate cancer. PCF Creativity Awards aid the advancement of the world's most imaginative, new research ideas that are not currently funded by any existing government or private sources.
The funded projects represent a range of research areas including biomarkers for earlier and more precise detection and treatment, to the development of new, nano-enabled therapeutics for metastases, to mapping areas of DNA where transcription factors initiate up to 60 percent of prostate cancers.
“We were impressed with the unique ideas represented by the applications we received. A rigorous peer review process vetted the ten selected projects from a field of more than 300 applications representing 105 institutions in 11 countries,” outlined Howard Soule, PhD, executive vice president and chief science officer for the PCF. “These awards feed our pipeline of compelling ideas to cultivate new solutions for the prostate cancer problem. Promising results will translate into better therapies for patients with advanced prostate cancer.”
Historically, 70 percent of such PCF awards have gone on to attract additional multi-year funding from the PCF and other sources.
“The PCF is very excited to have identified these programs for funding,” added Dr. Soule. “They have solid potential to deliver breakthrough discoveries.”