Season’s greetings from The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research!

2025 has been a year of unprecedented challenges to cancer research — and as CEO Ryan Schoenfeld and Executive Chair of the Board Ray DuBois shared with the Cancer Letter earlier this year, the role of foundations is now more critical than ever.

We are proud of how our community has come together to support scientists and keep research moving forward. Read on to learn what we’ve accomplished together in the past year and what we’re planning for 2026.

Reimagining Aging and Cancer

This September, we announced that the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation joined The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research to establish the Samuel Waxman Institute for Aging & Cancer, continuing Dr. Waxman’s legacy in aging and cancer research. The new institute, which will operate as part of The Mark Foundation, will enable us to place a critical focus on aging—the single most significant risk factor for cancer. Learn more.

Investing in Early Career Scientists

We presented five remarkable scientists with Emerging Leader Awards in 2025. These three-year grants, worth a total of $750,000 each, help early-career researchers pursue their boldest, riskiest ideas. Learn more about their research, and stay tuned for the announcement of our 2026 cohort in January!

Supporting Team Science

In 2025, we awarded two Endeavor Awards to multidisciplinary teams taking on some of the toughest challenges in cancer research.

Decoding the Dynamic Interplay between Hepatic Metabolism, the Nervous System, and Immune Responses in Cancer Cachexia Researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Tel Aviv University, and Technion are investigating the factors underpinning cachexia and identifying therapeutic targets.

Full Spectrum Genetic Engineering of CAR T-Cells for Gastric Cancer Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco and the Gladstone Institutes are developing enhanced CAR-T cell therapies and identifying novel targets for patients with gastric cancer, with additional support from the Torrey Coast Foundation.

Catalyzing Innovation

Feasibility and proof-of-concept studies are often difficult to fund - especially in today’s environment. This year, we presented ASPIRE awards to researchers worldwide for projects with high potential for impact on topics ranging from precision therapy for Li-Fraumeni Syndrome to identification of “glue-able” protein sites. View our most recent grants.

Intrinsically Disordered Proteins and Cancer

This year, following a January workshop held in collaboration with the Banbury Center at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, we also put out a focused call for ASPIRE proposals on intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) in cancer. The three teams who have received awards each bring novel approaches to illuminating this critical area of cancer biology. Learn more about our work on IDPs and cancer.

Partnering to Support High-Impact Research

We regularly partner with organizations around the world to support individuals and projects at the cutting edge of cancer research. In 2025, those efforts included:

With the DeGregorio Family Foundation and Torrey Coast Foundation: Granting three ASPIRE Awards focused on gastric and esophageal cancers
With the Follicular Lymphoma Foundation: Presenting two ASPIRE Awards for biomarker development in follicular lymphoma
With the European Association for Cancer Research: Awarding three inaugural EACR-Mark Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowships
With the European Association for Cancer Research and the Pezcoller Foundation: Awarding Marta Kovatcheva with the 2025 EACR-Mark Foundation-Pezcoller Foundation Rising Star Award
With the Cancer Research Institute: Awarding a postdoctoral fellowship in immuno-informatics
With the Israel Cancer Research Fund: Supporting research into a novel anti-cancer antibody in lung cancer
With the Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy: Funding a clinical trial of engineered CD4 and CD8 T cells in pancreatic cancer
With Contra el Cáncer Investigación (Spanish Association Against Cancer): Granting an ASPIRE Award investigating immunotherapy resistance in colorectal cancer

Moving the Field Forward

Our grantees have published a remarkable 231 peer-reviewed scientific papers so far in 2025, reflecting the breadth and quality of their work. Each quarter, we share a list of high-impact highlights —view our roundups from the first, second, and third quarters and look out for our fourth-quarter list in January.

Image from Endeavor Award team member Tobias Janowitz’s April 2025 Science paper

Spotlighting Our Community’s Accomplishments

This year, we shared updates on work by several of our grantees. Did you miss these stories? Catch up now!

Ansu Satpathy, pictured with his daughter, having his blood drawn for his research.

We were also thrilled to celebrate the recognition of our community members’ impacts on the field. Highlights include:

Three elections to the National Academy of Medicine
Three elections to the National Academy of Sciences
Five elections to the American Society for Clinical Investigation
Countless presentations by grantees and partners at leading conferences, including AACR 2025 and ASH 2025.

Looking Forward to 2026

2026 promises to be a year of continued momentum and impact for The Mark Foundation.

In January, we’ll announce the next class of accomplished Emerging Leader Award recipients, as well as new grants and programs related to our exciting partnerships in aging and cancer, early detection, and glioblastoma. Later in the year, we’ll present new ASPIRE and Drug Discovery Awards.

This March, we will gather in New York City for our annual Scientific Symposium, where we'll hear updates from our grantees. Throughout the year, we also look forward to convening, learning, and collaborating with many of you at upcoming workshops, conferences, and meetings around the world.

Support Our Work

Planning your year-end giving? You can support The Mark Foundation through a traditional one-time or recurring donation or through your donor-advised fund. However you choose to give, 100% of your tax-deductible contribution is directed toward supporting world-class research that will accelerate innovations from the bench to the bedside.

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