American Brain Tumor Association Awards nearly $1 Million in New Research Grants

CHICAGO, Nov. 2, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Brain Tumor Association (ABTA) announced today that it awarded $980,000 in funding to support early career scientists and investigators pursuing high-risk, high-impact projects deemed to have the potential to change current diagnostic or treatment paradigms for adult and pediatric brain tumor care.

"The ABTA identifies and funds investigators who are uniquely positioned to provide new insight into the brain tumor research arena," said Nicole Willmarth, PhD, chief science officer, American Brain Tumor Association. "This year's grant recipients join a prestigious group of scientists previously funded by the ABTA who collaborate on research, and share their knowledge and experiences to further advance our understanding of brain tumors."

The 2015/2016 Basic Research Fellowship, Discovery Grant and Medical Student Summer Fellowship recipients were selected by a scientific review committee based on the potential to advance the understanding and treatment of brain tumors.

Basic Research Fellowships are two-year, $100,000 grants for postdoctoral fellows embarking on careers dedicated to brain tumor research.  Through these grants, and under the guidance of a mentor, the ABTA is ensuring a diverse pool of highly trained brain tumor scientists will emerge as future leaders in the field. The 2015-2016 Basic Research Fellowship recipients are:

Sampurna Chatterjee, PhD
Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School; Boston, Mass. 
Mentor:  Rakesh Jain, PhD

William Flavahan, PhD  
Massachusetts General Hospital; Boston, Mass. 
Mentor:  Bradley Bernstein, MD, PhD

Hernando Lopez-Bertoni, PhD
Hugo W. Moser Research Institute Kennedy Krieger; Baltimore, Md.
Mentor:  John Laterra, MD, PhD

Megan Muroski, PhD
University of Chicago; Chicago, Ill.  
Mentor:  Maciej Lesniak, MD

Richard Phillips, MD, PhD
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Rockefeller University; New York, N.Y.
Mentor:  David Allis, PhD

David Raleigh, MD, PhD
University of California, San Francisco; San Francisco, Calif.
Mentor:  Jeremy Reiter, MD, PhD

Discovery Grants are prestigious one-year, $50,000 grants supporting cutting edge, innovative approaches that have the potential to change current diagnostic or treatment paradigms for either adult or pediatric brain tumors. The 2015-2016 Discovery Grant recipients are:

Amanda Garner, PhD  
University of Michigan; Ann Arbor, Mich.

Santosh Kesari, MD, PhD
University of California, San Diego; La Jolla, Calif.

Martina Maletesta, PhD   
University of California, San Francisco; San Francisco, Calif.

Braden McFarland, PhD 
University of Alabama at Birmingham; Birmingham, Ala.

Renee Read, PhD  
Emory University; Atlanta, Ga.

Andrew Venteicher, MD, PhD     
Massachusetts General Hospital; Charlestown, Mass.

Jennifer Yu, MD, PhD 
Cleveland Clinic; Cleveland, Ohio

Medical Student Summer Fellowships are a 10-12 week, $3,000 award intended to motivate talented medical students to pursue a career in neuro-oncology research.  The 2015-2016 Medical Student Summer Fellowship recipients are:

Vyshak Chandra
Massachusetts General Hospital; Boston, Mass.
Mentor:  Elizabeth Gerstner, MD

Maxwell Cooper
Cleveland Clinic; Cleveland, Ohio 
Mentors:  Justin Lathia, PhD, Michael Vogelbaum, MD, PhD

Ramita Dewan
National Institutes of Health; Bethesda, Md.
Mentor: Douglas Stewart, MD

Michael Hadler 
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Chapel Hill, N.C.
Mentor:  Ryan Miller, MD, PhD

Jaeho Hwang
Dana Farber Cancer Institute; Boston, Mass.
Mentor:  Rameen Beroukhim, MD, PhD

Jacob Miller
Cleveland Clinic; Cleveland, Ohio
Mentor:  Samuel Chao, MD

Panayiotis Pelargos
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA; Los Angeles, Calif. 
Mentors:  Isaac Yang, MD & Madhuri Wadehra, PhD

Kristen Scheitler
University of Missouri; Columbia, Mo.
Mentor:  Norman Scott Litofsky, MD

Aditya Sengupta
Brigham and Women's Hospital; Boston, Mass.
Mentor:  Mariano Viapiano, PhD

Nickpreet Singh
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, Pa.
Mentor:  Steven Brem, MD

Since 1976, the American Brain Tumor Association has funded more than $27 million in research which continues to attract new generations of researchers and supports the development of innovative ideas across a wide variety of research areas.  To learn more about the American Brain Tumor Association's research funding, visit http://www.abta.org/brain-tumor-research/.

ABOUT THE AMERICAN BRAIN TUMOR ASSOCIATION 
Founded in 1973, the American Brain Tumor Association was the first and is now the only national organization committed to funding brain tumor research and providing support and education programs for all tumor types and all age groups. For more information, visit http://www.abta.org or call 800-886-ABTA (2282).

Contact:  Julie Landmesser
219-201-4228 
[email protected]

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SOURCE American Brain Tumor Association