For the Sontag family, fighting brain cancer is personal, which is why Rick and Susan Sontag (The Sontag Foundation) have invested $33 million in support of brain cancer research. In 1994, Susan Sontag was diagnosed and treated for the most common form of brain cancer, glioma. As a 24-year survivor, Susan is the inspiration behind the work the Foundation is doing in an effort to make significant advances in finding a cure for brain cancer. The Sontag family also launched the nonprofit, Brain Tumor Network (BTN), which helps patients navigate through the treatment of this terrible disease.
As one of the largest private funders of brain cancer research in the United States and Canada, the Foundation is proud to announce the 2018 award recipients of The Sontag Foundation’s annual signature grant, the Distinguished Scientist Award. Each recipient will receive $600,000 over four years to support his or her brain cancer research project.
“The Sontag Foundation’s Distinguished Scientist Award will allow us to expand our findings to brain cancers that so far have been very difficult to treat with immunotherapeutics due to unique challenges. Our findings can help overcome some of these obstacles in the brain and create novel brain cancer-tailored immunotherapeutic agents,” said Dr. Verena Staedtke, with Johns Hopkins University, one of the four 2018 award recipients. The other three recipients are Dr. Sidi Chen, Yale University; Dr. Xi Huang, SickKids, Toronto; and Dr. Mario Suva, Massachusetts General Hospital.
“Through a competitive process, we award grants to young scientists who demonstrate outstanding promise for making scientific and medical breakthroughs in brain cancer research. In addition, we hope to help these early career scientists accelerate their research careers,” Rick Sontag, president.
To learn more about The Sontag Foundation, visit the website at www.sontagfoundation.org.
