SAN DIEGO – Curebound is gaining momentum as it adds new initiatives to its funding of cancer research and clinical trials.
The 3-year-old nonprofit that was a merging of Padres Pedal the Cause (founded in 2012) and Immunotherapy Foundation continues to be a leader in the biopharma arena, raising money and investing strategic funding in pioneering cancer research projects that accelerate new discoveries to clinical applications.
Since its original founding, the organization has funded more than $35 million in cancer research, awarding 123 cancer research grants for 17 types of pediatric and adult cancers in San Diego. All have the potential to spread nationally through scientific collaborations that accelerate better detection, treatment and cures for cancers.
Its goal for the next three years is to invest $50 million in collaborative grants, public private partnerships and targeted investments that are anchored in San Diego, with the potential to spread nationally and globally through scientific collaborations, with one vision: cures in our lifetime.
CEO
Curebound
“Curebound invests in high-risk/high-reward studies that others might pass on but that we feel have potential to disrupt cancer research,” says Curebound CEO Anne Marbarger. “Our scientific advisory board and research partners identify the most promising research and grant submissions, focusing on the greatest return on our donors’ investments in terms of research and clinical trial advancements, for cancer patients and their families, whom we ultimately serve.”
The organization started two new initiatives this past January, one that seeks to overcome disparities in cancer research and care and another that funds early-phase scientific companies and entrepreneurs – the first time it has done so.
Marbarger said $2 million is being invested in each of the initiatives, with each business getting $250,000.
Equity recipients were:
- Enhancing Lung Cancer Screening Engagement for Primary Care Patients in Low Income Communities David Strong, PhD (UC San Diego) and Job Godino, PhD (Family Health Center of San Diego)
- COMPRENDO-A: Peer-Navigation to Improve Accrual of Adolescents with cancer into Clinical Trials, Paula Aristizabal, MD (Rady Children’s Hospital – San Diego), Jesse Nodora, Ph.D. (UC San Diego)
- Screening with Liquid Biopsies to Address Colorectal Cancer Inequities, Samir Gupta, MD (UC San Diego), Job Godino, PhD (Family Health Center of San Diego)
- Improving Health Equity and Cancer Care Quality through Tailored Navigation, Matthew Banegas, PhD (UC San Diego), Corinne McDaniels-Davidson, PhD (San Diego State University), Nodora, Dr. PhD (UC San Diego)
Catalyst recipients were:
- Liquid Biopsy Detection of Ovarian Cancer Targeting Novel Extracellular Vesicle Biomarkers (Beken Bio, Inc.)
- Preclinical Development of NRAS Palmitoylation Inhibitors for NRAS Mutant Cancers (Palm Therapeutics, Inc.)
- Targeting Macrophages to Treat Glioblastoma (Resolute Science, Inc.)
Development of DMGV Analogs as a First-in-Class, Small Molecule Therapy for Colorectal Cancer (Seren Bio Corp)
Dr. Ezra Cohen is a member of Curebound’s scientific advisory board, and helps make the decisions on fund recipients.
Chief Science Advisor
Curebound
“The aim of Curebound’s scientific advisory board is to identify promising cancer research, dedicated investigators, and innovative treatment processes that have the potential to get to clinical trials and patients quickly,” he said. “We look for areas of emerging research where the greatest opportunity exists including high-risk/high-reward research that has the ability to disrupt traditional approaches. That has made all the difference in Curebound’s success.”
Past Grants Making Progress
Curebound recently announced that 2021 Discovery Grant recipients H. Irene Su, MD, MSCE, at UC San Diego, and Paula Aristizabal, MD, MAS, at Rady Children’s Hospital, have received $4.1M in follow-on funding to expand clinical trials for their Oncofertility Care Program. The additional funding will allow the program, aimed at preserving fertility for cancer patients, to expand to 19 clinics across three Southern California health systems.
Su said that they can expand their pilot program into an NCI-funded clinical trial, which currently involves 2,800 adolescent and young adult cancer patients at 19 clinics across three southern California health systems. UC San Diego has become the referral center for ovarian tissue preserving for young cancer patients in the region but additional partners now include with Kaiser Los Angeles, Kaiser San Diego and Eisenhower Medical Center for oncofertility care.
In another recent win, Curebound reports that an additional $1.2 million has been secured by one of its 2023 Cure Prize recipients to further support and expand clinical trials in pancreatic cancer research. Shweta Joshi, PhD, and Andrew Lowy, MD, both of UC San Diego, have received $1.2M in follow-on funding from The Lustgarten Foundation to further support their clinical trial in pancreatic cancer research and extend the study to multiple sites including UC Los Angeles and UC San Francisco.
Earlier this month, UC San Diego School of Medicine researchers Dr. J. Silvio Gutkind, Dr. Joseph Califano and Dr. Ezra Cohen said they had leveraged $200,000 in seed grant funding from Curebound to secure $9.6 million in National Institutes of Health follow-on funding, allowing for a launch of a clinical trial for head and neck cancer immunotherapy. In 2021, Curebound saw the need to study how leveraging new immunotherapies could benefit head and neck cancer patients and awarded the grant to support the research team’s goal – to investigate if initiating immunotherapy treatments before surgery, when the lymph nodes are still intact, may offer a next-generation treatment for head and neck cancer patients.
Three years later, the UC San Diego research team has advanced the understanding of immunotherapy resistance in head and neck cancers, and has been published in Cancer Cell and Nature Communications, received the NIH funding and launched a multi-location clinical trial at Portland Providence Medical Center and UC San Diego.
Marbarger also lauded a new Artificial Intelligence tool from Curebound-funded Ludmil Alexandrov, PhD of UC San Diego, which bypasses DNA sequencing, outperforms FDA-approved precision-oncology tests and was featured in Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Alexandrov, awarded a 2023 Curebound Targeted Grant for his work in next-generation sequencing to increase precision and effectiveness of therapy for prostate cancer patients, has made an enormous step forward in a new AI platform designed to save weeks and thousands of dollars from curative first-line precision-therapy workflows, Marbarger said.
The AI method in his work enables immediate, low-cost detection of an FDA-approved biomarker for treating aggressive ovarian, breast, prostate and pancreatic cancers.
Curebound
FOUNDED: 2021 (2012 as previous incarnation Padres Pedal For the Cause)
CEO: Anne Marbarger
HEADQUARTERS: San Diego
BUSINESS: Research nonprofit
REVENUE: $10.4 million (2023)
EMPLOYEES: 13
WEBSITE: curebound.org
CONTACT: 619-314-5878
SOCIAL IMPACT: Curebound has invested more than $37 million into pioneering cancer research, funding 115 grants that explore numerous types of adult and pediatric cancer.
NOTABLE: Curebound’s scientific advisory board identifies the most promising research and grant submissions, often investing in high-risk/high-reward studies that have potential to disrupt cancer research.
