The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation has announced the recipients of its 2013 Clinical Investigator Awards for patient-oriented cancer research and awarded Clinical Investigator Continuation Grants to three other investigators.

Six early-career physician-scientists conducting research under the mentorship of leading scientists and clinicians will each receive $450,000 over three years in support of their program. Designed to help address the shortage of physicians capable of translating scientific discoveries into new breakthroughs for cancer patients and awarded through the foundation's Accelerating Cancer Cures initiative, the Clinical Investigators program has provided nearly $45 million in support of seventy physician-scientists since 2000.

This year's recipients of the Clinical Investigator Awards are Omar Abdel-Wahab (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center), who has identified mutations in the gene ASXL1 in patients with specific blood cancers; Himisha Beltran (Weill Medical College of Cornell University), who is working to evaluate neuroendocrine prostate cancer tumors for recurrent molecular alterations and determine their functional and clinical impact; Christine M. Lovly (Vanderbilt University School of Medicine), whose goal is to develop novel treatment strategies for anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive lung cancer; Ann Mullally (Brigham and Women's Hospital), who will conduct research to discover which growth factors help MPN (myeloproliferative neoplasms) disease-propagating cells survive, then block their activity using drugs; Deepak Nijhawan (UT Southwestern Medical Center), who hopes to identify novel targets in lung cancer so that effective therapies can be developed for a broader range of patients; and Cameron J. Turtle (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center), who will test the hypothesis that alterations in the bacterial composition of the gastrointestinal tract regulate a specialized bacteria-responsive subset of immune cells after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

In addition, the foundation awarded Continuation Grants of $300,000 over two years to three Damon Runyon Clinical Investigators whose original awards are coming to an end. Funded by the William K. Bowes, Jr. Foundation and Connie and Robert Lurie, the grants are designed to provide researchers with extra time and funding to complete a promising avenue of research or initiate or continue a clinical trial.

For a complete list of grant recipients, visit the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Web site.