Ivy Foundation Funds New Brain Cancer Research Consortium : $3M Stage I Project Aims to Improve Personalized Medicine for...( Today the Be...),Health

Today, the Ben and Catherine Ivy Foundation (Ivy Foundation), a newly formed family foundation dedicated to improving survival and quality of life for patients with brain tumors, announced funding for the Ivy Genomics-Based Medicine Project.

PALO ALTO, Calif. (Business Wire EON) July 8, 2008 -- The Ivy Genomics-Based Medicine Project (Ivy G.B.M. Project) is a collaboration among nine U.S. institutions working together to try to better understand how the genetic differences in individual brain tumors can potentially inform the prediction of what will be the most effective treatment option for each patient. This project will categorize tumors by molecular profiling and, for the first time in brain cancer research, test each tumor against a wide spectrum of treatments to match differences in response with the profiles.

"Currently, all patients get basically the same treatment without taking into account the genetic profile of their tumor," said Catherine Ivy, Founder of the Ivy Foundation. "The end goal of this research initiative is to identify how tumors with different genetic features respond to a set of treatment regimens and ultimately, it is hoped, provide physicians with the tools they need to offer brain tumor patients the most effective treatment options based on the specific genetic profile of their tumor."

The $3,000,000 Ivy G.B.M Project grant was awarded to the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen). Under the leadership of Michael Berens, Ph.D., TGen will coordinate and manage the two-stage project spanning four to five years as well as provide their expertise in genomics based research.

Stage I of The Ivy G.B.M Project will start immediately and researchers will be working on an aggressive 18-month timeline with clear milestones and deliverables. Stage I creates a new consortium of nine academic laboratories utilizing models
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