On June 17, 2008, the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) hosted its 22nd Annual Awards Dinner at The Rainbow Room in New York City. More than 180 guests attended, raising $756,000 for the Institute’s research programs. CRI executive director Jill O’Donnell-Tormey, Ph.D., emceed the black-tie dinner, which honored philanthropic and corporate leaders and scientists who have made significant contributions to the fight against cancer.
Cancer Research Institute co-chairman of the board Donald J. Gogel, president & CEO of Clayton Dubilier & Rice, spoke on behalf of the Institute, highlighting its highly effective research programs, its efficient stewardship of donor funds and public trust, and its unique model of international collaboration and shared resources leveraging.
Keynote speaker Jedd D. Wolchok, M.D., director of immunotherapy clinical trials at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, shared his personal story of how he as a young research scientist first became interested in tumor immunology. (Read the transcript here.) He credited Cancer Research Institute Scientific Advisory Council Director Lloyd J. Old, M.D., MSKCC investigator Alan Houghton, M.D., and the Cancer Research Institute with opening many career-defining opportunities for him in the field of tumor immunology.
Dr. Wolchok told how his work with melanoma patients over the years fueled his passion to develop immune-based therapies to help them. Last year, the USDA approved his DNA vaccine for the treatment of malignant melanoma in dogs, making it the first approved therapeutic cancer vaccine to be made commercially available. His vaccine is now in trials with human patients with melanoma and other cancers.
The Institute feted two outstanding honorees whose contributions to cancer research—either through philanthropy and leadership or through scientific achievement—have made a significant impact in the Institute’s efforts to advance immunology to conquer cancer:
Carlos A. Ferrer, who received the Oliver R. Grace Award for Distinguished Service in Advancing Cancer Research. Mr. Ferrer is the founder and a managing member of Ferrer Freeman & Company, LLC, a private equity firm located in Greenwich, CT, that invests exclusively in healthcare and healthcare-related companies. He is a former chairman of the CRI Board of Trustees (1997-2001) and has been one of its most active members since he joined the board in 1994. The Institute celebrated his success in raising CRI’s profile within the pharmaceutical and financial management industries and in ushering CRI through one of the most transformative and expansive periods in its history.
Michael J. Bevan, Ph.D., investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor of immunology at the University of Washington, who received the William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology. The Cancer Research Institute honored Dr. Bevan for his discovery of cross-presentation and positive selection of T cells. His work has provided a scientific rationale for the development of much of the cancer vaccine field and our understanding of how the host cellular immune system detects tumor antigens and self-proteins.
Cancer Research Institute co-chairman of the Board of Trustees Andrew M. Paul, a long-time friend and associate of Mr. Ferrer, gave a good-spirited and humor-filled presentation of the Grace Award to Mr. Ferrer, in which he lauded the many positive qualities of Mr. Ferrer’s dynamic and personable character that make him, in Mr. Paul’s words, “such a great leader, and so much fun to be around.”
The festive gaiety of Mr. Paul’s speech was answered with a counterpoint of formal gravitas when Mr. Ferrer mounted the podium and, in his acceptance speech (read the transcript here), recited a poem by Englishman William Ernest Henley, entitled, “Invictus,” penned in 1875 after the author suffered a foot amputation resulting from tuberculosis infection. The “unconquerable soul” in the face of such circumstance described in the poem, Mr. Ferrer said, reminds him of the spirit that drives the Cancer Research Institute and the unconquerable scientists who dedicate their lives to solving the problem of cancer.
Presenting the Coley Award to Dr. Bevan was one of the world’s leading T-cell experts, Philip D. Greenberg, M.D., professor of medicine and immunology at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA, who is also a member of the Cancer Research Institute Scientific Advisory Council. In his presentation of the Coley Award (read the transcript here), Dr. Greenberg praised Dr. Bevan’s talents for data analysis and synthesis, insight, and ability to mentor young researchers, many of whom have gone on to become leaders in the field.
In his acceptance, Dr. Bevan recalled the history of tumor immunology and the many scientists who have contributed to the field. He also lauded the work of basic immunologists like Dr. Greenberg and CRI Scientific Advisory Council associate director Dr. James Allison, whose laboratory discoveries have had direct benefit for patients, and CRI clinical investigator Dr. Jedd Wolchok, who earlier in the evening showed a slide of 25-year old Sharon Belvin, a survivor of late-stage malignant melanoma who enrolled in a clinical trial of a new immune modulator called anti-CTLA4, which Dr. Allison discovered.
The Institute extends its gratitude to dinner co-chairs Peter J. Crowley, managing director, global head of healthcare investment, Oppenheimer & Co.; William M. Lewis Jr., co-chairman, investment banking, Lazard Ltd.; Wade F.B. Thompson, chairman, president, and CEO, Thor Industries, Inc.; and CRI co-chairmen of the Board of Trustees Donald J. Gogel and Andrew M. Paul.