Meso Foundation Awards $500,000 in Research Grants
Washington, D.C. - The Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation announced that it will be funding five new research projects that they hope will result in new and better treatments – and eventually a cure – for malignant mesothelioma.
According to a press release by the foundation, the winning projects were chosen from a group of nearly 50 applicants. Proposed projects are reviewed by the foundation’s Science Advisory Board – staffed by a host of mesothelioma experts – and the ones deemed most promising are funded.
Among the projects chosen this year is a study “attempting to combine all genomic data of ten different pleural mesothelioma tumors to obtain insight into their various molecular characteristics and to define the association of defective genes with how they impact the properties of cells that become malignant.”
Another project chosen by the foundation will “investigate how interferon gamma (a protein in the body’s immune system) is involved in regulation the response of mesothelioma cells to chemotherapy-induced cell death.” Preliminary data already introduced by this study shows that the “sensitivity of mesothelioma cell lines to pemetrexed (Alimta®) directly correlates with the ability of the tumor cells to respond to the protein.”
The funding of these five grants will bring the total of research projects funded by the Meso Foundation to 76. The foundation also provides patient support and education for asbestos cancer victims and their families and has also petitioned Congress for better funding for federal research of the disease.
