Timeframe: 2016 – 2019
Goal: Develop and fund a series of three-year FLC research fellowships
Overview: With this grant, FCF partnered with the prestigious Cancer Research Institute (CRI) to specifically focus on the role immunotherapy could have in creating curative therapies for fibrolamellar. CRI has been promoting immunotherapy research for 65 years, long before the establishment cancer treatment and research community recognized immunotherapy as a legitimate prospect for cancer patients.
This grant provided funding to develop and staff a series of joint FCF/CRI research fellowships for young researchers. Under the partnership, CRI would identify and screen potential candidates applying to their Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. FCF would then approve and fund three-year fellowships for selected researchers with FLC-specific research focus. The overall goal of the program was to identify and attract promising early-career researchers to investigate our disease.
Results: Through this program, four joint FCF/CRI fellowships were established:
- Amy Kim, MD (Johns Hopkins University)
- Kevin Sullivan, MD (University of Washington)
- Kevin Barry, PhD (University of California, San Francisco)
- Sofia DeOliveira, PhD (University of Wisconsin)
The young researchers awarded these fellowships have been making great strides forward in investigating the applicability of immunotherapy to FLC treatment. Details of their work is described in separate postings.