Woodruff Foundation awards $6 million to ACS, Winship Cancer Institute

Reddish cancer cells image against a dark background (credit: iStock/Getty Images Plus/Jezperklauzen)

The American Cancer Society, in partnership with Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, has announced a three-year, $6 million grant from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation.

The grant will fund a project aimed at significantly accelerating cancer research and improving patient outcomes by connecting Winship’s expert researchers with ACS Population Science researchers and relevant biospecimens and data within their premier Cancer Prevention Studies (CPS) cohorts. Over the next three years, ACS will build a cloud-based data pipeline and engage Winship experts in research using its CPS cohort data and specimens through 10 new collaborative pilot projects. The Winship team will help maximize the value of the CPS resources by contributing specific expertise in core pathology and bioinformatics.

“These CPS cohorts have been instrumental in advancing our understanding of cancer prevention and improving outcomes after a cancer diagnosis,” said Alpa Patel, senior vice president of Population Science for ACS and the principal investigator of the CPS-II and CPS-3 studies. “This partnership offers us a tremendous opportunity to amplify and accelerate the scientific discoveries that will come out of these cohorts in the future.”

(Photo credit: iStock/Getty Images Plus/Jezperklauzen)