Funding Wistar Science

Charitable gifts from Wistar supporters, and grants from corporations and private foundations, are essential to equip our scientists with the resources needed to pursue their bold ideas, follow where the science leads them, and accelerate discoveries in the fight against cancer and infectious diseases.

Wistar’s Hubert J.P. Schoemaker Education and Training Center received a $15,000 grant from the FJ Brotherton Charitable Trust to support Wistar’s Life Sciences Innovation course. The funds will be used to design and host a faculty workshop focused on providing facilitator training and curricular tools to implement the LSI course at participating faculty’s home institutions.

The Education and Training team also received another generous grant from Citizens in support of its workforce development programs. This $25,000 grant will be directed towards the award-winning Biomedical Technician Training (BTT) Pre-apprenticeship Program, helping to build pathways to careers in the biomedical industry for both community college students and adults.

Thanks to a fund set up by the late Doris Taxin, Drs. Irene Bertolini and Filippo Veglia were each recently awarded $30,000 toward their crucial research into glioblastoma. One of the most deadly and aggressive forms of brain cancer, the median survival rate for glioblastoma is 12-15 months, with only 10% of people surviving longer than five years. The Albert R. Taxin Brain Tumor Research Fund was established by Doris in 1993 to honor the legacy of her late husband and to help raise awareness and funds for brain tumor research.

Dr. Luis Montaner’s lab received a $100,000 grant from the Robert I. Jacobs Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation. This grant will support the “HIV-1 Patient Partnership for Basic Research” project, which includes biomedical research and community education activities with Philadelphia FIGHT.

Dr. Meenhard Herlyn was awarded $467,512 from the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation for research to better understand melanoma biomarkers and enhance the efficacy of therapeutics. The Adelson Foundation has been supporting Dr. Herlyn’s melanoma research since 2022.

Martina De Bortoli, postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Jessie Villanueva, was awarded a one-year Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from the American-Italian Cancer Foundation to support her research on acral melanoma. Acral melanoma is a less common subtype of melanoma generally limited to nail beds, palms of hands and soles of feet. Unlike other melanomas it is not primarily associated with UV exposure.