Aug 8, 2017   SOURCE: PR NewsWire

Padres Pedal The Cause Awards $750,000 To San Diego's Leading Cancer Research Institutions

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 8, 2017 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Padres Pedal the Cause announced today the awarding of $750,000 to fund 12 collaborative research grants to three National Cancer Institute-Designated Cancer Centers in San Diego - along with Rady Children's Hospital - San Diego. The NCI-Designated Cancer Center recipients are Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute.

Earlier this year, Padres Pedal the Cause announced more than two million dollars was raised by the 1,500 riders, hundreds of volunteers, donors and sponsors taking part in the November 2016 cycling event. All expenses were underwritten through the support of corporate sponsors including the Koman Family Foundation, BD, Sempra Energy, Wells Fargo, Qualcomm and many others.

"It's exciting to see the San Diego community rally behind finding a cure for cancer," said Anne Marchand, executive director of Padres Pedal the Cause. "100 percent of the proceeds stay in San Diego to advance innovative cancer research and we are pleased to announce today the awarding of 12 new grants. Additional grants will be awarded later this year."

Padres Pedal the Cause awarded six grants totaling $450,000, to collaborative projects among the three NCI-Designated Cancer Centers. These projects focus on studying all cancers and therapies for Bcell lymphomas, colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, and breast cancer. They include: (detailed descriptions here)

Project 1: "Oncogenic Regulation of B-Lymphomagenesis by the Chromatin Modulator DOT1L"

    --  Bing Ren, PhD (Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health)
    --  Aniruddha Deshpande, PhD (Sanford Burnham Prebys Cancer Center)

Project 2: "Decoding Colon Cancers Using Boolean Principles"

    --  Pradipta Ghosh, MD (Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health)
    --  Debashis Sahoo, PhD (Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health)
    --  Manuel Perucho, PhD (Sanford Burnham Prebys Cancer Center)

Project 3: "An Over-Expressed GPCR in Pancreatic Cancer Associated Fibroblasts as a Novel Therapeutic Target"

    --  Paul Insel, MD (Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health)
    --  Kristina Vuori, MD, PhD (Sanford Burnham Prebys Cancer Center)

Project 4: "Identification of Genes Critical for the Production of T-cells from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells for Development of "Off-the-Shelf" T-cells Immunotherapies"

    --  Dan S. Kaufman, MD, PhD (Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health)
    --  Sumit K. Chanda, PhD (Sanford Burnham Prebys Cancer Center)

Project 5: "Irreversible Electroporation as an In Situ Vaccine for Pancreatic Cancer"

    --  Rebekah White, MD (Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health)
    --  Aaron Miller, MD, PhD (Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health)
    --  Steven Schoenberger, PhD (La Jolla Institute)

Project 6: "Targeting Cellular Mechanotransduction in Breast Cancer Metastasis"

    --  Jing Yang, PhD (Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health)
    --  Elena Pasquale, PhD (Sanford Burnham Prebys Cancer Center)

"The pace of discovery and research depends on funding," said Christopher J. Kane, MD, professor of Urology and senior deputy director of Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health. "Proceeds from Padres Pedal the Cause are funding transformative research that may lead to new understanding, tools and treatments for patients with cancer."

Padres Pedal the Cause awarded $300,000 in grants for six research projects at Rady Children's Hospital - San Diego

Rady Project 1:"Tissue-Specific Role of SMARCB1 in Pediatric Rhabdoid Tumors"

    --  Frank B. Furnari, PhD (Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at UC San
        Diego)
    --  John Crawford, MD (Rady Children's Hospital)

Rady Project 2: "Deciphering the Role of RNA Editing in Leukemia Stem Cell Generation and Pediatric Acute Leukemia Relapse"

    --  A. Preethi Ganesan, MD, PhD (Rady Children's Hospital)
    --  Catriona Jamieson, MD, PhD (Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health)

Rady Project 3: "Discovery of Non-Coding Oncogenic Mutations in Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Using ATAC-Seq and Hi-C"

    --  Graham McVicker, PhD (Salk Institute Cancer Center)
    --  Jesse Dixon, PhD (Salk Institute Cancer Center)
    --  Dennis Kuo, MD (Rady Children's Hospital)

Rady Project 4: "Identification of Therapeutic Targets of B-ALL Using Boolean Logic"

    --  Dabashis Sahoo, PhD (Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health)
    --  Deborah Schiff, MD (Rady Children's Hospital)

Rady Project 5: "Developing Targeted Therapy for Ewing Sarcoma Metastasis"

    --  Jing Yang, PhD (Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health)
    --  Sun Choo, MD (Rady Children's Hospital)

Rady Project 6: "Novel Kinase Inhibitors in Combination with Retinoic Acid for Neuroblastoma"

    --  Peter Zage, MD, PhD (Rady Children's Hospital)

"Cancer shows no mercy. While research is advancing, essential government funding is declining, and NIH grants are disappearing," says Donald Kearns, MD, MMM, President and Chief Executive Officer of Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego. "Padres Pedal the Cause has stepped up to the plate to fund collaborative research into the causes of and best treatments for pediatric cancer. Pedal's support has enabled our experts to fast-track research from the bench to the bedside here at Rady Children's. It is because of this crucial source of funding that we are closer than ever to finding a cure."

The fifth annual Padres Pedal the Cause event takes place November 11-12, 2017, at Petco Park and will feature courses of various distances for all skill levels, a stationary bike zone, virtual riding, a children's ride as well as numerous volunteer opportunities for all those who want to make a difference in the fight against cancer.

Registration for the 2017 event is open. New this year, Padres Pedal is only the second cycling event to ride over the Coronado Bay Bridge. For more information and registration please visit www.gopedal.org

About Padres Pedal the Cause
Padres Pedal the Cause is a California non-profit public benefit corporation established to fund, plan and manage an annual two-day cycling fundraiser in partnership with the San Diego Padres. The organization's mission is to end cancer by raising money for innovative life-saving research in San Diego. To date, Padres Pedal has raised over $4.7 million and funded 31 collaborative research projects at four beneficiaries: Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego. For more information, please visit www.gopedal.org. Padres Pedal can also be found on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Media Contact: Eileen Gaffen, Padres Pedal The Cause, 858.792.0366 or cell 913.484.765, admin@gopedal.org

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SOURCE Padres Pedal the Cause