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Beneficiary
Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy
Swim Across America (SAA) is proud to team up with Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy (ACGT) for the 10th consecutive year.
The 2016 SAA Greenwich-Stamford Swim will contribute to the research of three ACGT Investigators: Dr. John Bell, Ottawa Research Institute, Dr. Fan Yang, Stanford School of Medicine, and Dr. Arnob Banerjee, University of Maryland School of Medicine.
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Dr. Bell, an ACGT Investigator, is focused on oncolytic virotherapy, man-made viruses that target only cancer cells, and reduce the side-effects of chemotherapy or surgery. He has discovered the enormous promise they offer to treat brain cancer. |
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Dr. Yang is an ACGT Young Investigator who will use the funds to research new treatment options for pediatric brain cancer, the leading cause of death from childhood cancer. Dr. Yang’s study will target solid brain tumor cells, which are often invasive and difficult to treat. |
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Dr. Banerjee, also an ACGT Young Investigator, will further develop the long-term effectiveness of immune-mediated treatments, an advanced form of gene therapy to treat blood cancers. Dr. Banerjee was recently interviewed by ABC News on using gene therapy as an alternative to chemotherapy and radiation therapy: http://www.abc2news.com/news/health/immunotherapy-research-could-provide-alternative-to-traditional-cancer-research |
Since 2001, ACGT has funded $26.4 million in grants to some of the nation’s top investigators in the field of cell and gene therapy, conducting research at University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins, MD Anderson, Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Duke, Yale, Stanford, Moores UCSD Cancer Center, Harvard, Dana Farber, and the Mayo Clinic, among other prestigious medical institutions.
ACGT supports cell and gene therapy research for many forms of cancer, including lymphoma, leukemia, ovarian, breast, prostate, pancreatic, lung, and brain cancers. Breakthroughs using cells and genes as ‘medicine’ are leading to patients in remission, garnering world-wide encouragement from all of us who know and love someone who has cancer.
Gene therapy is the process of introducing genetic material, usually DNA, to fight an acquired or inherited disease. Cell therapy treats disease by infusing or transplanting whole cells into the patient for the same purpose.
Supporting research projects such as those done by SAA recipients Khalid Shah, Ph.D. at Harvard/Massachusetts General Hospital, and Thomas J. Kipps, MD, Ph.D. at Moores Cancer Center University of California San Diego, John Bell, Ph.D., Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Arnob Banerjee, MD, Ph.D., University of Maryland School of Medicine, and Fan Yang, Ph.D., Stanford School of Medicine will lead to more effective, less debilitating treatments for cancer patients. 100% of the money presented annually to ACGT goes directly to research to help treat and defeat cancer.
