UMass Chan Medical School announced on Monday cancer biologist William Flavahan received a four-year, $600,000 Distinguished Scientist Award from the Sontag Foundation: Brain Cancer Research Foundation.
The financial award will enable Flavahan to continue his research into the genetic processes that lead to brain tumors, according to the press release from the Worcester school.
Flavahan’s study focuses on how epigenetic defects play a role in the initiation and treatment resistance of primary pediatric glioma, the leading cause of cancer deaths in children.
“Changes to the epigenome are ubiquitous in brain cancer, yet much remains to be discovered about how these changes guide brain tumor biology,” said Flavahan in the press release.
The Sontag Foundation, based in Florida, was created by glioma survivor Susan Sontag and her husband Frederick Sontag. Founded in 2002, the organization has become one of the largest private funders of brain cancer research in the United States, per the release.
