Penn Medicine and The Wistar Institute have been awarded a prestigious $12.1 million SPORE grant from the National Cancer Institute. The five-year Specialized Programs of Research Excellence, or SPORE, grant will fund four new melanoma research projects that aim to translate fundamental laboratory discoveries into new therapeutics to treat melanoma and other skin cancers.

Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer and the fifth deadliest form of cancer, overall. According to NCI statistics, an estimated 76,100 new cases of melanoma will occur in 2014 in the U.S. alone, and it will kill 9,710 people. If caught early, melanoma is considered treatable; however, therapies showing lasting effects for late-stage, metastatic melanomas are greatly needed.

Meenhard Herlyn, DVM, DSc, the Caspar Wistar Professor in Melanoma Research and director of The Wistar Institute  Melanoma Research Center, will serve as the Principal Investigator, and Lynn M. Schuchter, MD, chief of Hematology/Oncology and leader of the melanoma program at Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center, will serve as Co-Principal Investigator of the grant.

“We’re honored to be recognized by the NCI with this SPORE grant, and thankful it will allow all of us to expand on this collaboration—which has already led to important developments in melanoma,” said Schuchter.  “From targeted therapy to immunotherapy, these melanoma projects—and the people leading them—are at the forefront of medicine, with an ultimate goal of translating basic research from the laboratories into patient care more quickly.” 

Other Penn faculty involved with the project include Carl H. June, MD, the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Robert Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, the Hanna Wise Professor in Cancer Research in the Abramson Cancer Center, Ravi K. Amaravadi, MD, assistant professor of Medicine in the division of Hematology/Oncology in the ACC, and Katherine Nathanson, MD, an associate professor in the division of Translational Medicine and Chief Oncogenomics Physician for the ACC.

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