The Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) has received a $1M donation from The Epstein Family Foundation for research on pancreatic and prostate cancer.
According to SBP, the donation was a gift from SBP board member Dan Epstein and his wife Phyllis, aimed at supporting the lab work of Nicholas Cosford, Ph.D., associate director of Translational Research at the Institute’s NCI-designated Cancer Center.
“Nick Cosford is one of our leading scientists investigating new approaches to treat patients with pancreatic and prostate cancers,” Perry Nisen said, M.D., Ph.D., chief executive officer of SBP, in a statement.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer with no effective therapies and a five-year survival rate as low as six percent, according to SBP. Prostate cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S.
“Aggressive tumor cells, such as those found in pancreatic and advanced prostate cancer, are highly resistant to the normal mechanisms the body uses to eliminate abnormal cells,” said Cosford, in a statement. “We are developing medicines that overcome this resistance by inhibiting the pathways tumor cells use to survive.”
SBP officials say that Cosford has spent over 25 years assembling small molecules into disease-fighting chemical compounds.
