Turning to angels for cancer research funding

Boston cancer researchers looked outside typical funding sources when they wanted to try a novel laboratory experiment, an example cited in a New York Times story about federal grants favoring science that "plays it safe."

Dr. Ewa T. Sicinska of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute didn't even apply for a National Institutes of Health grant when she wanted to grow human cancers in mice, according to Dr. George D. Demetri, who leads the research group supporting her. Implanting human cancer cells in mice has been tried before, in hopes of understanding the disease better, but with little success.

Sicinska embarked on the work with support from the Ludwig Fund, which allows six cancer centers, including Dana-Farber, to use its money as they see fit. With a quarter of a million dollars of Ludwig money, she has implanted tumors in mice without immune systems, the story says. Four types of sarcomas — cancers of fat, muscle or bone — are growing in them and look genetically identical to the tumors removed from patients.

Demetri told the Times he did not apply for an NIH grant “because we have lots of experience in what’s fundable.”