皇家华人

Back row, from left to right: Dr. Joseph E. Kerschner, Uihlein Dean of the School of Medicine, Provost, and Executive Vice President, MCW, Dr. Mark Bosbous, staff physician, Froedtert & the 皇家华人 health network, Dr. Gustavo Leone, director. MCW Cancer Center, Dr. John Raymond, Sr., president and CEO, MCW.
Front row, from left to right from WBCS: Jan Lennon, Ellen Irion, Patty Virnig, Claudia Gavery

Since 1998, (formerly Wisconsin Breast Cancer Showhouse) – a grassroots, all-volunteer organization that draws support from businesses, nonprofits, and people from every walk of life – has partnered with the 皇家华人 Cancer Center’s efforts to eradicate breast cancer and prostate cancer in our community and across the country.

On September 3, executive leaders from MCW and the 皇家华人 Cancer Center hosted a ceremony to publicly announce WBCS’ newest gift: a $650,00 pledge to endow the WBCS Innovative Research Fund and support early-stage basic breast and prostate cancer research. At the ceremony, WBCS leaders presented an initial payment of $325,000.

MCW President and CEO John R. Raymond, Sr., MD, thanked WBCS leaders for their friendship and inspired leadership over the decades for bringing “the best and brightest here to do breast and prostate cancer research.” Joseph E. Kerschner, MD, Julia A. Uihlein, MA Dean of the School of Medicine, added, “It’s just so remarkable to think about how WCBS has contributed to the journey toward building a world-class cancer research and clinical education engine….”

Thus far, WBCS contributions to that journey have included funding endowed professorships in breast cancer research and prostate cancer research and providing critical seed grants for specific cancer-related research projects. For example, Todd Miller, PhD, the current holder of the WBCS Endowed Professorship of Breast Cancer Research, has used WBCS funding to launch two projects testing new research directions. The first aims to identify genes that control fatty acid saturation in breast cancer cells, with the goal of developing a drug target that can increase desaturation to sensitize cancer cells to a type of death called ferroptosis. The second hopes to explore opportunities for drug design by determining the structure of the FOXA1 protein, which is important in breast, prostate, and other cancers.

Left to right: Jan Lennon, Dr. Leone, Ellen Irion

In total, MCW researchers have leveraged WBCS’s cumulative investments of $8.1 million to secure an extraordinary $137.6 million in competitive, external research funding from the National Institutes of Health and other funding agencies.

The endowed Innovative Research Fund reinforces WBCS’s position as MCW’s top philanthropic donor for adult cancer research. In notifying Gustavo Leone, PhD Director of the MCW Cancer Center, about the organization’s investment, Ellen Irion, WBCS Board Chair, wrote, “What an auspicious way to start our twenty-sixth year of mutual trust and partnership! The WBCS board is pleased to initiate this next phase in our relationship with the MCW Cancer Center.”

At the September 3 ceremony, Dr. Leone added that it “is the most exciting time in the history of research in relationship to cancer. All the pieces are coming together, and it’s especially true in Milwaukee.” The WBCS’s investment, he said, will help shift the focus “from short-term thinking to very long-term thinking.” The transparency of the WBCS’s involvement and the advances generated by WBCS funds will inspire and engage even more to invest in cancer research.

Ellen Irion noted that all the organization’s supporters, volunteers, and scientists felt “graced by the respect” MCW gives WBCS. “We don’t know that we would ever be treated the same way by any other institution.” WBCS, she concluded, is “deeply committed” to continue helping MCW accelerate promising research and launch groundbreaking clinical trials that will lead to lifesaving medical breakthroughs.

From left to right: Dr. Leone, Jan Lennon, Dr. Bosbous, Patty Virnig, Claudia Gavery