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Following a competitive application process, CTF was selected for the second year in a row to deliver an ‘Innovator’ presentation at the 2010 Partnering for Cures Meeting  - the second annual meeting organized by the Milken Institute to bring together medical research leaders and decision-makers, innovators, and advocates from across sectors, to find workable solutions that will expedite the medical research and development process. Over 800 attendees participated including incoming CTF President  George Orfanakos, who met personally with Milken Institute founder, Michael Milken, to share CTF’s goals and programs; and CTF Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Kim Hunter-Schaedle, who presented ‘The Neurofibromatosis Preclinical Consortium’ as an example of an innovative collaboration between foundations, universities and industry.  The Foundation also met one-on-one with a number of potential partners from the investment, biotech and private sectors. A video of the presentation along with the slides can be viewed here: http://www.partneringforcures.org/2010_innovators/29_neurofib.html

For the second year in a row, the Children's Tumor Foundation neurofibromatosis research programs have been recognized and invited for presentation at the Partnering for Cures meeting, which takes place next week in New York. Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Kim Hunter-Schaedle will present in one of the invited "Innovator" slots on the morning of Wednesday December 15th.  Partnering for Cures is organized by FasterCures, an organization formed under the auspices of the Milken Institute to unite non-profit entities focused on medical research  in a forum for information exchange and building collaborations.   This is the second year of the Partnering for Cures meeting, which aims to drive collaboration between non-profit medical research foundations, the pharma and biotech  industry and federal agencies such as the FDA, and investors, in order to accelerate the identification of cures.  Uniquely, at Partnering for Cures, it is the medical research foundations that take center stage, a recognition of  the increasing central role of foundations in advancing research progress to the clinic. As well as two-days of presentations and panels, the meeting provides  an opportunity for one-on-one meetings between potential future collaborators and partners. The CTF Innovator presentation will showcase the Neurofibromatosis Preclinical Consortium (NFPC) in which candidate drugs are assessed in preclinical models of NF1 and NF2 tumor types. NFPC has led to collaborations with companies including Novartis, Genentech and Avila Therapeutics.  NFPC is CTF's biggest investment since 2008 at over $4M, and which we are set to expand for a further two years at $3.5M 2011-2013.  

Dr. Susan Lindquist of the Whitehead Institute has been awarded the National Medal of Science this week in a ceremony at the White House. Dr. Lindquist has been the recipient of a Children’s Tumor Foundation Drug Discovery Award, and she gave the opening Keynote Lecture at the 2010 NF Conference in Baltimore, MD in June.

The National Medal of Science is given annually to a small number of select scientists by the National Science Foundation. The 2010 Award recognizes Dr. Lindquist’s overall focus on understanding how proteins folds, which could have broad reaching applications in medicine and biotechnology.  Her neurofibromatosis-focused work has looked at heat shock proteins and their potential role in NF1.

The Children's Tumor Foundation has been selected to take the stage as an 'Innovator' at  'Partnering for Cures' the Milken Institute forum that aims to transform the medical research system and accelerate cures by providing a partnering venue for foundations, industry and investors. Partnering for Cures had its inaugural meeting in 2009 and we are  honored to be a selected speaker for the second year in a row. 

CTF's 'Innovator Presentation'  will showcase progress to date in our Neurofibromatosis Preclinical Consortium (NFPC), CTF's collaboration of six research centers conducting drug trials on models of different NF1 and NF2 related tumors. NFPC, CTF's biggest investment to date at $4M+, has generated a number of exciting findings to date and has established collaborations with Novartis, Genentech, Avila Therapeutics and other industry entities that we hope will advance progress to NF clinical therapies.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases (TRND) program offers researchers resources to take an exciting early stage preclinical drug candidate forward to more advanced validation and readiness for the clinic.  TRND is specifically focused on advancing therapies for rare diseases (those that, like neurofibromatosis, affect fewer than 200,000 Americans) and neglected diseases. TRND is now calling for applications to access these resources. Applications are due December 6th. More information: http://trnd.nih.gov