THE SCIENTIFIC REVIEW PROCESS
What is The Scientific Review?
The Concern Foundation’s biennial Scientific Review is the process that determines which researchers receive Concern’s $60,000 Conquer Cancer Now Awards, and essentially, where all the money we raise goes.
Every two years, Concern flies in top researchers from all over the world who spend a weekend in Los Angeles for a rigorous process of reviewing the best of the best research applications that have been whittled down from nearly 200 cancer research applications that were received beginning in mid-September. These finalists will receive the Conquer Cancer Now Award. Concern Foundation has funded over 700 researchers through the Conquer Cancer Now Awards.
Why Do You Need a Scientific Committee to Review to Decide Who Receives a Grant?
We believe in transparency. In order to be transparent in our grant selection and fund disbursement, we have a longstanding unbiased scientific review committee. This Scientific “Peer” Review is a process that actually has very little to do with us at Concern so that the awards are truly given to the next generation of young and innovative cancer research scientists based solely on the merits of their proposal.
Who is on the Scientific Review Committee?
The committee is made up of established researchers from major cancer research institutions around the world. Many of the scientific review committee scientists are prior recipients of the Conquer Cancer Now Award who have made great advances in their field and continue to sit on the committee to help fund the next big idea in cancer research.
Joshua Breunig, Ph.D.
Professor Biomedical Sciences and Director, Organoid Modeling Center Regenerative Medicine Institute
Cedars Sinai
Milan Chheda, M.D.
Associate Professor; Director of Neuro-oncology
Washington Universtiy in St. Louis, Medicine Division of Oncology
David Cobrinik, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Research Ophthalmology and Biochemistry & Molecular Medicine, Cobrinik Laboratory
Children's Hospital Los Angeles / Keck School of Medicine of USC
Don J. Diamond, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation
City of Hope National Medical Center
Sinisa Dovat, Ph.D., M.D.
Professor of Pediatrics, Pharmacology and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Four Diamonds Endowed Chair, Director of Translational Research and Developmental Therapeutics
Pennsylvania State University, College of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
*Anat Erdreich-Epstein, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Pathology, Director, USC/CHLA Summer Oncology Research Fellowship Program, Neural Tumors Program, Basic and Translational Brain Tumor Research, Cancer and Blood Disease Institute, Division of Hematology-Oncology, Department of Pediatrics
Children's Hospital Los Angeles and Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California
Muller Fabbri, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Leader Cancer Biology Program
University of Hawai’i Cancer Center
Michael Farrar, Ph.D.
Professor and Virginia and David C. Utz Land Grant Chair in Fundamental Immunobiology
Center for Immunology and Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota
Stacey Finley, Ph.D.
Nicole A. and Thuan Q. Pham Professor and Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, and Quantitative and Computational Biology, Dir-Center, Director of the Center of Computational Modeling of Cancer
University of Southern California
*Jennifer R. Grandis, M.D.
Robert K. Werbe Distinguished Professor
University of California San Francisco
Nora Heisterkamp, Ph.D.
Research Professor, Department of Systems Biology
City of Hope National Medical Center
Steve M. Kornblau, M.D.
Professor, Departments of Leukemia and Stem Cell Transplantation & Cellular Therapy
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Prof. Ofer Mandelboim, Ph.D.
The Concern Foundation Laboratories in the Lautenberg Center for Immunology and Cancer Research, Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem
Markus Müschen, M.D., Ph.D.
Arthur H. and Isabel Bunker Professor of Medicine (Hematology) and Professor of Immunobiology
Yale School of Medicine
Nouri Neamati, Ph.D.
John G. Searle Professor of Medicinal Chemistry
Rogel Cancer Center, University of Michigan
Chintan Parekh, M.B.B.S.
Pediatric Hematologist-Oncologist, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics
City of Hope National Medical Center
JinSeok Park, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Keck School of Medicine of USC
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
Saul Priceman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Medicine and Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Director of the KSOM/NCCC Center for Cancer Cellular Immunotherapy Research, Norman and Mary Pattiz Endowed Chair for Cancer Research
University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine
*Edward V. Prochownik, M.D., Ph.D.
The Paul C. Gaffney Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics
Section of Hematology/Oncology, Rangos Research Center, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh
Evanthia Roussos Torres, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Medicine and Cancer Biology, Program Leader for Tumor Immunology and Microenvironment (TIME) Program
University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine
Prof. Renata Stripecke, Ph.D.
Chair of Translational Immune Oncology, Regenerative Immune Therapies Applied Department of Hematology, Hemostasis, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation
Hannover Medical School
*Review Committee Co-chairs
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