Gil Mor, M.D., Alessandro Santin, M.D.

Gil Mor, M.D., and Alessandro Santin, M.D., members of Yale Cancer Center, received more than $5 million in federal and foundation grants in January to improve detection of ovarian cancer and to find a cure for the disease. Santin received $1.7 million, including two grants from the Italian National Institutes of Health and another from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for $346,000 per year for five years. Although Santin’s NCI-funded research is focused on therapeutic vaccination strategies for the treatment of HPV-infected cervical cancer patients, he also studies therapies for the management of chemotherapy-resistant ovarian cancer.

Mor will use an NCI grant of $314,000 per year for the next five years to better understand the mechanism by which ovarian cancer cells resist cell death. Another newly awarded five-year NCI grant totaling $1,715,000 will fund Mor’s research on the ways in which tumors influence the immune system to promote their own growth and progression. Mor also has three foundation grants that include $150,000 per year for three years from the Janet Burros Memorial Foundation; $50,000 per year for three years from the Sand Foundation; and $50,000 from the Adler Foundation.