Local foundation helps young investigators pursue brain cancer research

The Sontag Foundation awards $2.4M in research grants

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According to the American Cancer Society, fewer than 24,000 malignant tumors of the brain or spinal cord will be diagnosed in 2020, while incidents of lung cancers will be nearly 10 times that number. But statistics no longer matter when your loved one is “one of the few.”

Ask Rick and Susan Sontag. Their world changed in 1994 when, after nearly 40 years of marriage, Susan was diagnosed with a category 3 astrocytoma brain tumor.

“The odds were then that I wouldn’t be on this earth longer than about 18 months,” she said in a 2006 speech to the Society for Neuro-oncology.

The diagnosis was the catalyst for her husband, Rick, to take action. After all, with a master’s in physics and an MBA from Harvard Business School, Rick had grown a small aircraft ignition manufacturer into a multinational corporation. He was ready to face Susan’s battle. In 2002, Rick and Susan formed The Sontag Foundation to fuel significant advances in brain cancer research.

Through their Ponte Vedra-based private foundation, they have invested $35 million in support of brain cancer research. With some of the best researchers in the field serving on its scientific advisory board, the foundation has awarded 51 grants to researchers at 34 institutions through its annual Distinguished Scientist Award. The first grant was awarded in 2003.

The award seeks to provide career and research support to early career scientists who demonstrate outstanding promise for making scientific and medical breakthroughs in the field of brain cancer research. Applicants are carefully considered and selected by The Sontag Foundation and its independent Scientific Advisory Board based on the scientific merit of the proposed project, career trajectory, peer and mentor references and an onsite research facility visit.

DSA recipients are required to travel to St. Augustine to accept the award and meet with past winners. If at all possible, alumni make the trip as well to reconnect with Rick Sontag and fellow researchers. The three-day symposium attracts between 30 and 60 brain cancer experts each year.

This year’s keynote speaker, Dr. Mark Johnson, chair of neurosurgery at UMass Medical School, received the Distinguished Scientist Award in 2004, and has returned every year since.

“It’s really exciting to develop friendships that sometimes lead to professional collaborations that are also fruitful,” Johnson said. “It’s an opportunity to meet and develop relationships with other scientists.”

Four 2019 Distinguished Scientist Award winners will receive $600,000 over four years to support his or her brain cancer research project.

Gilad D. Evrony, MD, PhD is assistant professor in the Center for Human Genetics & Genomics at New York University School of Medicine. Evrony’s research will focus on the “family tree” of individual tumor cells. The project will create new “single-cell” technologies to reconstruct lineage histories that may reveal the origins of brain tumors, and may facilitate future lineage-targeted therapies. He said the DSA is unique because it helps young investigators to get started. “It’s the best hope I could have for the start of my lab,” Evrony said.

Mariella G. Filbin, MD, PhD is assistant professor of pediatric oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Brain tumors are the No. 1 cause of cancer-related death in children, and Filbin seeks to change that. Her research will stop looking at the tumor as a whole, and instead look at each individual cell. “I’ve always dreamed of being a Sontag recipient,” Filbin said. “It gives access to the best in the field to share information. It’s like a family; it really is.”

Steven A. Sloan, MD, PhD is assistant professor in the Department of Human Genetics at Emory University School of Medicine. Glioblastomas are one of the most malignant types of central nervous system tumors and remain largely incurable despite advances in treatment. His research will seek to understand the developmental principles that underlie glioblastoma using new genetic and stem cell tools. “It is a privilege to be included among this group of talented, motivated, and incredibly innovative scientists,” Sloan said.

Capucine Van Rechem, PhD is assistant professor in the Department of Pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Fewer than 1% of pediatric patients survive five years after diagnosis with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Gliomas. Van Rechem seeks to unravel new strategies for targeted therapies and potentially more effective treatments for this incurable childhood disease. “It is an honor to be recognized by The Sontag Foundation to tackle the deadliest childhood cancer,” Van Rechem said.

Rick Sontag is a hands-on president of the foundation by day and primary caregiver to his wife, and inspiration, by night.

“If you asked me 25 years ago if I’d be doing this, I’d have said ‘no way,’” Rick Sontag said. “I think it becomes obvious, God put you on this earth to do something.”

And do something, he has indeed.