$600 Million for Cancer Research

Date Announced: November 2017

Funder: Florence and Herbert Irving

Recipient: New York-Presbyterian academic healthcare delivery system and Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Amount: $600 Million

The donation will fund cancer research and clinical treatments at the New York, New York based campus. Among the areas to benefit will be radiation therapy, surgery, patient therapies and the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. The couple has already announced a $100 million donation to the institutions.

New DFG (German Research Foundation) Centers

Date Announced: December 2017

Funder: German government

Recipient: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)

Amount: $156 million

The DFG will spend €133 million ($156 million) over four years to fund 15 additional Collaborative Research Centers (CRCs), effective January 1, 2018. Indirect costs can count up to 22% of the funding allowance.  Researchers from multiple disciplines work together at CRCs, which are based at German universities. Seven of the new CRCs will be CRC/Transregios, where research is conducted by 2–3 universities, rather than just 1. Biological research at the new Centers will include research on chiral molecules (University of Kassel), molecular checkpoints for immunology (University of Mainz), and cellular interfaces (University of Münster).  Also announced was a new round of four-year funding for the 21 existing CRCs.

Donation for Precision Medicine

Date Announced: December 2017

Funder: Dr. P. Roy and Diana Vagelos

Recipient: Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons

Amount: $100 million

The donation be evenly divided between funding for basic research and precision medicine. It also includes an endowment for a Department of Medicine professorship. In addition, the company donated $150 million to assist medical school students with tuition debt.

ARPA-E Funding Restored

Date Announced: December 2017

Funder: US DOE

Recipient: Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) OPEN program

Amount: Up to $100 million

The DOE announced the availability of funding under this ARPA-E program for early-stage research to support energy systems. OPEN Funding Opportunity Announcements have been issued every three years since 2009. OPEN is designed to enable “disruptive technology concepts” that are not currently funded by ARPA-E. Concept papers are due February 12, 2018. The announcement comes after a Government Accountability Office report criticized the Trump Administration’s re-designation of certain ARPA-E funding.

New Institutional Collaboration for Precision Medicine

­Date Announced: December 2017

Funder: Jeffrey and Susan Brotman, and Pam and Dan Baty

Recipient: UW Medicine, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Seattle’s Children

Amount: $50 million

The donation has established the Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine to host collaborations by the three recipient organizations through establishment of a network of labs at the three locations. The Institute will be directed by Jay Shendure, MD, PhD, of the University of Washington School of Medicine. One project will be to study the estimated 60,000 BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in relation to breast cancer risk.