Monday, October 11, 2010

BeatSarcoma makes a $20,000 research gift to UCSF

BeatSarcoma is very pleased to announce that it just made a $20,000 research gift to UCSF sarcoma research program, thus adding another formal program to the list of sarcoma programs it supports.

UCSF recently created a sarcoma research group and has worked closely with BeatSarcoma to identify the most impactful projects to fund. BeatSarcoma's Medical Advisory Board reviews all proposals for funding and makes a recommendation to the BeatSarcoma Board of Directors.



From left to right: Nathan Bossett, Nathalie Criou from BeatSarcoma and Dr Eric Nakakura, MD, PhD, UCSF

The money will help fund UCSF translational research laboratory dedicated to understanding basic mechanisms of sarcoma cancer growth - rapid processing is a key element of tissue collection and critical to the quality of molecular research as any lengthy wait or mishandling could lead to cell degradation and wrong conclusions. The UCSF laboratory benefits from a direct line into the operating room and can fully control the way tissue samples are collected and stored or cultivated, thus ensuring cell biological integrity.



Dr Nakakura, MD, PhD in the UCSF translation laboratory


Dr Nakakura, MD PhD, the lead investigator and a cancer surgeon specializing in the treatment of soft tissue sarcoma says: "I'd like to offer my sincere thanks to BeatSarcoma for its tremendous generosity. Please know that our ongoing partnership has a direct impact on our sarcoma studies that we hope will benefit patients in the near future.  We greatly appreciate the support!"

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Dr. George Demetri MD and Dr. Robert Maki, MD, PhD join BeatSarcoma's Medical Advisory Board

BeatSarcoma feels very honored to count Dr. George Demetri, MD of Dana-Farber and Dr Robert Maki, MD, PhD of Memorial-Sloan Kettering on its Medical Advisory Board. Together with Dr Amreen Husain, MD of Stanford University, they will advise the BeatSarcoma Board on the best way to disburse research funds.

Dr George Demetri is Director of the Center for Sarcoma and Bone Oncology; Senior Vice President for Experimental Therapeutics; Director of the Ludwig Center at Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center; executive director for Clinical and Translational Research at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. and Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School on its Medical Advisory Board.

Dr Robert Maki is a medical oncologist and co-leader of the adult Sarcoma Disease Management Team at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center with a special interest in new therapies for the treatment of soft tissue and bone sarcomas, particularly metastatic disease. He is also trying to develop vaccines and other forms of immunological therapy against sarcomas to "teach" the immune system to attack tumor cells but not normal cells.

Please join us in welcoming both of them to our community!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

2010 Sarcoma Cup

The 2010 Sarcoma Cup, the 3rd annual sailing regatta organized by BeatSarcoma took place on August 28th and 29th at the Berkeley Yacht Club. Over 84 boats registered in what has become a long-awaited event in the Bay Area sailing community. Saturday’s was a buoy race, and Sunday’s was a long distance race 'Islands of Hope' - both on the San Francisco Bay.

This year, the sailing regatta grossed over $32,000 to benefit BeatSarcoma, the organizing nonprofit that raises funds for sarcoma cancer research, read more here. This successful event had changed its location from the previous two years at the Richmond Yacht Club. The winner of the Cup was the Wabbit Mr McGregor from the Richmond Yacht Club - the Sarcoma Cup trophy will therefore remain at the Richmond Yacht Club until the next event!

This year also featured a new website, check out www.sarcomacup.org, which some say it’s so alive it entices even those who normally do not sail to do so more often.

Here are some summaries:

Thanks to all of our corporate and private sponsors who made it possible for us to increase our fundraising through raffle, and online and silent auctions, as well as to our dedicated volunteers, who donated their time coordinating the event, manning registration and shirt tables, decorating, cooking, doing water taxi, among other fun duties!