Johns Hopkins Receives Major Gift For Kimmel Cancer Center
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A cancer foundation dedicated to cancer research is spending nearly a billion dollars in funding across several research centers including Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.
Rochelle Ritchie spoke with one of the directors, who says the money will help to research even more ways to detect cancer even sooner.
Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center is just one of several to receive part of $540 million--$90 million, to be exact--and already directors know exactly how to put the money to good use.
The Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center is one of, if not the leading, agencies when it comes to cancer research.
"This new fund will allow us...to use this genetic information to best manage cancer patients," said Dr. Kenneth Kinzler.
So it's no surprise that the Ludwig Foundation, dedicated to cancer research, would choose the center as one of the recipients for its share of nearly half a billion dollars toward cancer research.
"It allows researchers to do the research they think is most critical without concerns for long-term funding and short-term progress," said Kinzler.
Kinzler, one of the top scientists in the world, has been part of some major developments made possible by the Ludwig Foundation.
Just to give you an idea of how important funding is for the Kimmel Cancer Center, in 2006, the Ludwig Foundation gave the center $20 million. That money was able to fund the first ever genomic maps of cancer.
"These studies and the studies we were able to do subsequently had identified more than a dozen new cancer genes important in human cancer," said Kinzler.
Ludwig's commitment to cancer research has expanded over the decades and has helped doctors answer some of the most important questions in cancer.
The center has already received the money. It's a donation that will have an impact for years to come.
"It's been given in such a way it will support cancer research here at Johns Hopkins University for many years--well beyond my lifetime--until it's not a problem," said Kinzler.
A total of six research centers are part of this funding, including Harvard.
The Ludwig Foundation has given the Kimmel Center a total of $110 million over the last few years.
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