Five bladder cancer experts to receive $250,000 research grants from Johns Hopkins

Five bladder cancer experts will be awarded research grants totaling $250,000 from the Johns Hopkins Greenberg Bladder Cancer Institute on Oct. 15. The grant awards will be the centerpiece of a day-long board meeting. The event will culminate with the unveiling of a ceremonial plaque marking the establishment of the new institute that was made possible with a landmark gift from Baltimore-area commercial real estate developer Erwin Greenberg and his wife, Stephanie Cooper Greenberg.

The Greenbergs’ gift is the largest designated bladder cancer research gift ever given to the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and is part of a $45 million co-investment with the institution, which will draw on multidisciplinary research teams from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center; the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s departments of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences, Pathology, and Surgery; and the Brady Urological Institute at Johns Hopkins.

According to William Isaacs, Ph.D., the Greenberg Institute’s interim director, the first set of grants are expected to span a range of laboratory research to help define bladder cancer biology and clinical applications for one of the most deadly but underfunded cancers. Isaacs is the William Thomas Gerrard, Mario Anthony Duhon, and Jennifer and John Chalsty Professor of Urology, and a professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

“We are reviewing many outstanding applications. It was a competitive process, and our awards will represent a wide range of innovative ideas for discovery and translational research for patients,” says Isaacs.

“We are deeply grateful to Stephanie and Erwin Greenberg for their philanthropic leadership. This institute will impact patients worldwide. It is our goal to appoint an institute director within the next six months who will provide broad scientific leadership,” says Paul Rothman, M.D., dean of the medical faculty and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine. Rothman says Isaacs will serve the institute until the director is in place, with May 2015 as the target date.