At its 2nd Blue Ribbon Gala in September 2015, UNC Lineberger honored a number of it supporters who have made significant contributions in the fight against cancer, including Nicholas Valvano, president emeritus of The V Foundation for Cancer Research.
UNC Lineberger hosted its 2nd Blue Ribbon Gala on September 18, 2015, gathering more than 400 people to celebrate advancements in cancer care at UNC. A select few were honored at the black-tie event who have made significant contributions to UNC Lineberger in the fight against cancer, including Nicholas Valvano, president emeritus of The V Foundation for Cancer Research.
Valvano is the eldest brother of the late N.C. State University basketball coach Jim Valvano, who founded The V Foundation for Cancer Research after being diagnosed with cancer at the young age of 46. Nicholas served as Chief Executive Officer of The V Foundation for 13 years (1999-2012) and has been a member of the Board of Directors since its inception. Under his leadership, The V Foundation established relationships with several cancer centers nationwide – including UNC Lineberger – and awarded more than $100 million in grants across 38 states. The Foundation proudly awards 100 percent of direct cash donations to cancer research and related programs, continuing Coach Valvano’s legacy and his inspiring words, “Don’t give up…Don’t ever give up!”
Perou awarded V Foundation Grant, matched by others
Chuck Perou, PhD, a UNC Lineberger member and world-renowned researcher in the field of genomics and breast cancer, was honored to receive a 2015 V Foundation “Partners in Excellence Collaborative Grant” for $250,000. The award was matched by a $250,000 gift from long-time donors and UNC Lineberger Board of Visitors members Wally and Lil Loewenbaum and Neill and Linda Currie, for a total of $500,000 in cancer research funding.
“We are extremely grateful for this funding, which will allow us to pursue a novel form of research called ‘immunogenomics’,” explains Perou. “By approaching the immune system from a genomics perspective using DNA and RNA sequencing, we can now sample tumors and study the immune response in hundreds of individual patients at a personalized level never seen before. This is all a part of our quest to harness the power of the immune system to fight tumors.”
Perou says this type of matching gift provides researchers greater freedom to pursue high risk, high reward translational research, as opposed to government-based funding. It is this type of intellectual freedom that drives innovation and is most likely to result in novel findings of high importance that directly affect cancer patients.