A new effort by the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council will challenge life sciences companies to give $1.4 million to fund cancer research.
The goal of the MBC Cancer Research Challenge, to be announced today at the MBC Annual Meeting in Boston, is to fund ten new three-year, $140,000 American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowships. MBC members AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals and Novartis have each committed to funding one of the fellowships.
The MBC said that federal funding for basic science research has declined in recent years, making funding sources like the ACS program important. The fellowship program helps launch the careers of new cancer researchers. According to the MBC, society-funded investigators have contributed to most of the major cancer advances of the last 60 years.
