Research Fund for Waldenstrom's -- RFW 2002 Awards

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> 2002 Research Awards

> 2001 Research Grants

The Research Fund for Waldenstrom's, Ltd. just released $170,000 to fund five Smokler research grants exclusively for Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia. The recipients for 2003 are:

1. Drs. Irene Ghobrial, Rafael Fonseca and Morie Gertz of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota in the amount of $50,000 for a phase II study of Genasense, which might be clinically important in the near future for patients with Waldenström`s disease.

2. Drs. Grace Lee, Norman Latov, Arthur Hays and Thomas Brannagan of Weill Medical College- Cornell University in New York City in the amount of $40,000 who propose to develop an experimental mouse model to elucidate the effector mechanism responsible for the peripheral neuropathy associated with Waldenstrom's. This is an important field for further studies.

3. Drs. Linda Pilarski and Andrew Belch of Cross Cancer Institute at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada in the amount of $40,000 for applying a new technology to analyze the malignant clone in Waldenström`s macroglobulinemia. Their previous year's work was presented at the Athens Conference and at ASH in Philadelphia in December and was well received by their peers. Their work crediting the RFW for financial support will also be published in Seminars in Oncology next June.

4. Drs. Gwen Nichols and Cy Stein of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center of Columbia University in New York City in the amount of $20,000 to study the bcl-2 downregulation on patient specimens. This work was also presented in Athens. The poster session by Drs. Gwen Nichols and Cy Stein during the ASH meeting was also well received by their peers and will be included in Seminars in Oncology in June

5. Dr. Surinder Sahota of the Molecular Immunology Group at Tenovus Laboratory of the University of Southampton in England in the amount of $20,000 to characterize the nature of the malignant cell in Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia by analysis of the V genes. Dr. Sahota presented his work in Athens. His work was published in Blood last June crediting the RFW for financial support and will also be published in Seminars in Oncology next June.

The RFW, Ltd. thanks those whose financial support made this possible.