PRESS RELEASE: The Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance Is Now Accepting Applications for the 2019 Prize for Early-Career Cancer Investigators

October 1, 2018, New York, NY (BUSINESS WIRE): The Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance (PSSCRA) today announced the opening of applications for its 2019 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 area-based scientists. The prize empowers researchers to pursue innovative, high-risk/high-reward cancer research at a stage when traditional funding is lacking.

Applicants must have between two to eight years of experience running their own laboratories by the award start-date (July 2019) and hold a PhD, MD or MD-PhD (or degree equivalent). The deadline to submit a Letter of Intent is November 5, 2018. For more details on PSSCRA and the application process, including the full eligibility criteria, please visit: https://live-psscra.pantheonsite.io/application/.

Now providing funding and support for 32 investigators, the highly competitive Prize underwrites the bold research of 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 sixth year of the Prize, we remain extremely impressed by the remarkable scientific talent in the NYC area. These extraordinary early-career scientists have the potential to bring about catalytic change for the detection and treatment of cancers,” said Olivia Tournay Flatto, PhD, 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.”

“I was very excited to hear that we were awarded the Pershing Square Sohn Prize,” said Dan Landau, MD, PhD, a 2018 Prize winner who is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine as well as a Core Member at the New York Genome Center. “The Pershing Square Sohn Prize recipients constitute a unique community. A community shares a certain mentality, a certain way of developing unconventional perspectives to tackle problems that are the core of cancer research.”

“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, PhD, 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 innovative approaches to identify all molecular players in cancer and highlight novel ways to treat this disease.”

“This is a highly impactful and prestigious award which has made a major impact on my career,” remarked 2014 Prize winner Ross Levine, MD, the Laurence Joseph Dineen Chair in Leukemia Research and Director of the MSK Center for Hematologic Malignancies at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Levine concluded his project in 2017 and last year participated in PSSCRA’s application process as a guest reviewer.

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. 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, including the renowned annual New York Sohn Investment Conference.

The Conference honors the memory of Ira Sohn, a Wall Street Professional who lost his battle with cancer at age 29. His friends and family founded the New York Sohn Investment Conference in 1995. Since then, investment leaders from across the globe have been inspired to launch partner Sohn Conferences to bring the financial community together for charitable causes. Sohn Conferences include, Sohn Australia, Sohn Brazil, Sohn Canada, Sohn Geneva, Sohn Hong Kong, Sohn India, Sohn London, Sohn Monaco, Sohn San Francisco, and Sohn Tel Aviv. To date, the Foundation has raised more than $85 million. More information on the Sohn Investment Conference is available at: www.sohnconference.org.

Press Contact

Christy Barrow
Program Manager, Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance
cbarrow@persq.org