Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center has announced a $100 million gift from the Fiona and Stanley Druckenmiller Foundation to establish a fund to seed promising projects in translational cancer medicine that might otherwise go unfunded.

The Fiona and Stanley Druckenmiller Presidential Innovation Fund will support early-stage, innovative research that serves as a bridge between the lab and the clinic and helps develop novel diagnostics and therapies. The fund will focus on studies identified by MSK’s president and CEO, in consultation with the physician-in-chief and chief medical officer and the director of the Sloan Kettering Institute, as having the highest potential for transformational impact for people with cancer. It also will provide guidance and flexible funding for MSK’s translational research efforts, enabling the institution to rapidly advance novel ideas, studies, and collaborations as they arise, both within MSK and in partnership with other research institutes.

Stanley Druckenmiller has served on MSK’s board since 1997, and the couple’s support for the cancer center includes a gift made in 2015 to establish the Fiona and Stanley Druckenmiller Center for Lung Cancer Research.

“We wanted to create more opportunities to support research endeavors that could lead to lifesaving treatments for many people with cancer,” said Fiona Druckenmiller. “We’re confident that the fund will have a transformative effect on cancer outcomes over the next ten years.”

(Photo credit: Courtesy of the Druckenmiller family)