PRESS RELEASE: The Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance Now Accepting Applications for the 2018 Prize for Early-Career Cancer Scientists

NEW YORK, Oct. 2, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance (PSSCRA) today announced the opening of applications for its 2018 Prize for Young Investigators in Cancer Research. The prize of $200,000 per year for up to three years is awarded annually to at least six New York City-based scientists, enabling them to continue to pursue explorative, high-risk/high-reward cancer research at a stage when traditional funding is lacking.

Applicants must have between 2 to 8 years of experience running their own laboratories by the award start-date (July 2018) and must hold a PhD, MD or MD-PhD (or degree equivalent). The deadline to submit the Letter of Intent is November 6, 2017. For more details on the application process, including the full eligibility criteria, and for more details on The Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance, please visit: www.psscra.org.

Now providing support for 25 primary investigators, the highly competitive Prize underwrites the research of early-career cancer scientists at a formative stage in their careers. In order to facilitate these collaborations, each Prize winner is given access to leaders in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries and the opportunity to present his or her work to scientific, business, and philanthropic audiences.

“As we embark on the fifth year of the Prize, we remain consistently impressed with the extraordinary scientific talent in the NYC area. These brilliant early-career scientists have the potential to bring about catalytic change for the detection and treatment of cancer,” said Olivia Tournay Flatto, Ph.D., President of The Pershing Square Foundation and Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance. “The future of New York’s life science research and industry relies on our ability to discover and support such new talent.”

“When we learned about receiving the Pershing Square Sohn Prize we were super excited,” said Daniel Heller, PhD, a 2017 Prize winner who runs the Cancer Nanomedicine Laboratory at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. “The support will enable us to do innovative work that we wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise.”

“I am honored to be part of this esteemed group of early-stage investigators who are working toward understanding the basis of cancer,” said Agnel Sfeir, Ph.D., a recipient of the 2016 Prize and assistant professor at NYU’s Skirball Institute of Biomolecular medicine “With support from the Pershing Square Sohn Prize, my lab and I are pursuing risky approaches to identify all molecular players in cancer and highlight novel ways to treat this disease.”

As part of the selection process, The Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance relies on the guidance of a highly accomplished advisory board that reflects the culture of collaboration the Alliance implements. Prize Advisory Board members include Jeanne B. Ackman, MD, Director, Thoracic MRI, Radiologist, Massachusetts General Hospital, Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School; Mikael Dolsten, MD, PhD, President, Worldwide Research and Development, Pfizer, Inc.; Allan Goodman, PhD, President and CEO, The Institute of International Education; Pablo Legorreta, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Royalty Pharma; Richard P. Lifton, MD, PhD, President, The Rockefeller University; Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Oncology, Columbia University Medical Center, Author of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer and The Gene: An Intimate History; James E. Rothman, PhD, Fergus F. Wallace Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Yale University, 2013 Nobel Prize Winner in Physiology or Medicine; Bruce Stillman, PhD, President and CEO, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; and Craig Thompson, MD, President and CEO, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

About The Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance

The Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance was formed in 2013 through a $25 million commitment by Bill and Karen Ackman and The Pershing Square Foundation, which partnered with The Sohn Conference Foundation. The Alliance is dedicated to playing a catalytic role in accelerating cures for cancer by supporting innovative cancer research and by facilitating collaborations between academia and industry.  Annually, the Alliance awards The Pershing Square Sohn Prize to young New York based scientists who are engaged in cutting-edge cancer research. For more information, visit https://live-psscra.pantheonsite.io/.

About The Pershing Square Foundation

In 2006, Bill and Karen Ackman founded the Pershing Square Foundation (PSF) to support exceptional leaders and innovative organizations that tackle important social issues and deliver scalable and sustainable impact across the globe.  In the decade since, PSF has committed $400 million in grants and social investments across a number of fields, including health and medicine, education, economic development and social justice.  By investing in pioneering individuals, non-profits and mission driven companies who dare to re-imagine the possible, PSF has helped to bring about important breakthroughs — from cancer research and small scale agriculture to criminal justice reform and educational opportunities for young people in communities around the world. For more information visit: www.pershingsquarefoundation.org.

About The Sohn Conference Foundation

The Sohn Conference Foundation is dedicated to the treatment and cure of pediatric cancer and other childhood diseases. The Foundation supports cutting-edge medical research, state-of-the-art research equipment, and innovative programs to ensure that children with cancer survive and thrive. The Foundation raises its funds through premier investment conferences and special events, including its renowned annual New York Sohn Investment Conference.

Founded in 1995, the Conference honors the memory of Ira Sohn, a Wall Street professional who lost his battle with cancer at age 29. The Foundation has expanded its reach to include Sohn Australia Conference, Sohn Canada Conference, Sohn Hong Kong Conference, Sohn India Conference, Sohn London Conference, Sohn San Francisco Conference and Sohn Tel Aviv Conference. To date, the Foundation has raised more than $75 million. More information on the Sohn Conference Foundation can be found here: www.sohnconference.org.

Pershing Square Foundation Press Contact:

Janet Wootten, Rubenstein Communications
212-843-8093 / jwootten@rubenstein.com