WHY IS FUNDING RESEARCH SO IMPORTANT?
This is a condensed version of an update on Dr. Cheryl Jorcyk, Boise State University (BSU)
Professor, whose clinical trial is a treatment that stops breast cancer from metastasizing to the organs
and bones.
st
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Dr. Jorcyk applied for one of our American Cancer Society Research Grants and was turned down the 1
nd
year because her grant writing was rusty. The 2 year she applied she landed on the list for Pay-If funded
grants, but we didn’t get funding for it. She applied the third and final year, according to ACS rules, and was
turned down but was told that she was barely behind a researcher at Stanford University, a well-recognized
research school. She was put on the Pay-If list again but with her previous experience doubted she would
hear a word. Late in the summer she was camping and came home on the weekend to a phone message
from ACS, she had to wait until Monday but found out she had been funded for $720,000, which started the
following June with a 4 year term. BSU is a teaching school and not a research school so getting the ACS
grant was/is a big deal for her and BSU!
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During the 4 years she was able to hire and train several Ph.D. and Master’s Degree candidates, find a
protein that carries Breast Cancer cells throughout the body allowing it to metastasize and overtake other
organs and bones, and develop several treatments to stop it that worked extremely well with mice. Her
research has led to a clinical trial that started in January 2014 and pre-trial drug testing on a couple dozen
drugs and cocktails. The research findings and images with mice are absolutely amazing and her story
brings major hope. She is awaiting a reply on a grant application she has out with the National Cancer
Institute (NCI). Here is a link to her page on the BSU website. http://biology.boisestate.edu/faculty-and-
staff/faculty/cheryl-jorcyk/
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This photo shows one round of applications our research peer review committee receives in a funding
cycle. All the papers you see here are promising research proposals. The purple line indicates that every
project above it was rated an “excellent” project, worthy of our funding by the committee of cancer
doctors, scientists and volunteers who review these applications. Everything above the red line is what
we could fund in that grant cycle. The projects sitting there between that red and purple line are the “PAY
IF” grants, meaning we fund them if we get more money than we’re projected to in a fundraising cycle.
What if a better treatment, less invasive screening or new cure is in that part of the pile? We want to raise
more money through our event this year so we can fund more of these excellent projects.
Our efforts are critical to the mission of finishing the fight against cancer. And you are a huge part of that!
THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO! TOGETHER, WE ARE SAVING MORE LIVES, FASTER, AND WILL
FINISH THIS FIGHT!
2016 Relay for Life of South Lane County • 9