The Lustgarten Foundation in Woodbury, New York, has announced 17 grants totaling $23 million to advance pancreatic cancer research.

Grants were awarded over the past year to researchers at 13 institutions in alignment with the foundation’s three research pillars of early detection, new drug development, and personalized medicine. This year’s grants include continued funding through the LABS Program for laboratories at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, led by David Tuveson; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, led by Tyler Jacks; and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, led by Brian Wolpin.

Additional grant recipients include Ajay Goel (Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope), for the study “A Circulating Epigenetic Signature for Early Detection of Pancreatic Cancer”; Kacper Rogala (Stanford University School of Medicine), for the study “Establishing Choline Transport as Selective Vulnerability of Pancreatic Cancers”; and Karyn Goodman (Tisch Cancer Institute and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai), for the study “Navigating Pancreatic Cancer Multidisciplinary Care to Address Cultural and Language Barriers to Clinical Trial Enrollment among Mandarin and Spanish Speaking Patients with Pancreatic Cancer.”

“The Lustgarten Foundation was founded on the principle that funding innovative, cutting-edge research is the only way to improve patient outcomes and ultimately transform pancreatic cancer into a curable disease,” said Lustgarten Foundation CEO Linda Tantawi. “For 25 years, Lustgarten has been an industry trailblazer, driving progress and inspiring hope throughout the community. Our commitment remains resolute as we build on this momentum with a clear vision of a future with pancreatic cancer cures.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/gorodenkoff)