Fall 2026
By Lisa Gregory
Photography by Bryce Vickmark
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute continues to be at the forefront of innovative cancer research to improve patient care. With renewed funding from The Ellison Foundation, Bill Lotter, PhD, Eliezer Van Allen, MD, chief of the Division of Population Sciences and Chandra Nohria Family Chair for AI in Cancer Research at Dana-Farber, and Robbie Majzner, MD, director of the Pediatric and Young Adult Cancer Cell Therapy Program, are conducting pioneering work with the potential to advance research and treatment across multiple cancer types.
The Ellison Foundation has supported Dana-Farber for decades. In 2025, the foundation awarded three grants totaling $650,000 to renew their support for these researchers. Established in the 1950s, this private foundation has in recent decades developed a focused philanthropic interest in basic and applied medical research.
Lotter is working to improve understanding of tumor structure and uncover patterns that may inform new treatments—particularly because tumors can vary significantly even among patients with the same cancer type. Harnessing subtle patterns in medical images using artificial intelligence (AI) is central to Lotter’s work, and his lab is developing advanced AI models that improve predictive accuracy and support broader clinical use of its findings.
Van Allen is analyzing how inherited and tumor-specific genetic mutations interact to drive cancer. His team developed biologically guided AI methods to integrate molecular data and map these interactions, particularly in protein networks. Van Allen’s team is expanding the data set to include more than 100,000 patient genomes. His advanced, large-scale AI analysis may strengthen cancer diagnosis, treatment, and prevention for patients.
Majzner is developing a single antibody capable of recognizing the sugar GD2 and a closely related molecule simultaneously on the cell surface of neuroblastoma, a cancer that typically grows in the immature nerve tissue of infants and children. His team identified this unique combination of treatment targets, which may help prevent tumors from escaping immune detection. These studies are helping advance candidates for clinical trials for children with neuroblastoma.
We are excited about the promise of Dana-Farber’s cancer research and clinical applications that can widely improve patients’ lives.
Andrew Silverman, The Ellison Foundation
“We are excited about the promise of Dana-Farber’s cancer research and clinical applications that can widely improve patients’ lives,” said Andrew Silverman, one of four trustees of The Ellison Foundation.