Winter 2024
By Kathy Clute
Photography by Josh Campbell
Dana-Farber has a unique tool to foster innovation—the Faculty Research Fund (FRF). When a donor makes a gift for a designated research program or project, 10% of that gift is allotted to the FRF to fuel discoveries across the Institute.
This pool of funds ensures that promising early stage inquiries receive valuable start-up resources, that investigators can push the boundaries of current knowledge, and that Dana-Farber can continue recruiting and retaining the world’s best cancer physicians and scientists.
In Fiscal Year 2024, Dana-Farber allocated just over $9 million to the FRF for institutional priorities that transcend individual disciplines and facilitate breakthroughs across all cancer types. The FRF has deployed more than $75 million to advance our research mission since it was established in 2013.
Projects funded this year include Profile, a large-scale initiative that has assembled one of the world’s most comprehensive databases of the genetic abnormalities that cause tumors to develop and grow. Profile facilitates “precision medicine” (or personalized medicine) by helping physicians match targeted therapies to individual patients based on their cancer’s genomic profile. These therapies are engineered to attack tumor cells with specific abnormalities, while leaving normal cells largely unharmed.
The FRF also supported research devoted to inherited (germline) mutations that may indicate whether an individual and close relatives are at increased risk for certain cancers, and the Center for Precision Immuno-Oncology (CPIO). The CPIO enables translational, multi-department research among Dana-Farber’s laboratory and clinical investigators as well as with external academic and industry partners. Above all, the FRF ensures we are prioritizing the needs of our faculty—the brilliant minds behind every scientific breakthrough that brings us closer to a world without cancer.