Scientific Milestones

1996 - MRF Founded by Diana Ashby

The Melanoma Research Foundation was founded in 1996 by Diana Ashby, a melanoma patient.  Diana created the MRF after 3 years of battling the deadly cancer, a period in which she grew increasingly frustrated with the ineffectiveness of the current medical treatments for melanoma.  Diana's frustration turned to determination and she began to investigate alternative therapies and trials for promising new drugs.  She discovered that the research and development of such new treatments were often stalled due to inadequate funding.  The founding of the MRF was the result of Diana's struggle and will to make a difference. 

1998 - Launch of Research Grant Program

The MRF has distributed millions of dollars through an annual grant program supporting research in prevention, diagnosis and treatment.  Proposals are reviewed by an independent Scientific Advisory Board.  Awards from the following categories are sought:

• Career Development awards to encourage the best researchers to enter the field of melanoma
• Established Investigator awards to sustain researchers in the field of melanoma
• Medical student research grants to open the door to new invesigators

2005 - Roadmap for New Opportunities in Melanoma Research

The MRF and the Society for Melanoma Research (SMR) created a white paper that provided a compelling scientific lynchpin to engage a variety of programs within NCI to strategically plan a research agenda with external experts and stakeholders.  As a result of this "roadmap", a scientific meeting was convened which provided the groundwork for Congress to request the 5-year NCI strategic plan for melanoma research.

2005 - Partnership with the Cancer Diagnosis Program (CDP), NCI

A workshop sponsored by CDP, the melanoma SPORE program and MRF focused on the need for biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis, and prediction.  As a result, CDP provided supplemental funding to six institutions for tissue collection for use in the development of a tissue microarrays (TMAs) bank that would be made available to researchers.  TMA technology allows hundreds of tiny tissue samples from a variety of patients to be put on a single slide, conserving a scarce resource and allowing research on numerous samples in one experiment.

Read the full story about the partnership here: http://dctd.cancer.gov/ProgramPages/cdp/partnerships_MRF.htm 

2006-2007 - Community-Oriented Strategic Action Plan for Melanoma Research of 2007

The NCI partnered with the MRF and SMR in 2006 to convene a meeting that would address the Congressional request to identify and prioritize new directions for melanoma research - including innovative technologies, new targets for more effective therapy and guidance on how to facilitate translational research.  The meeting was held February 27 - March 1, 2007 in Bethesda, Maryland.  Co-chairs of the meeting were Meenhard Herlyn, co-chair of the MRF SAC and Alison Martin of the NCI, now CMO of the MRF Breakthrough Consortium.  The resulting document, the Community-Oriented Strategic Action Plan for Melanoma Research of 2007, was submitted to Congress for what has turned out to be a continuing multisector discussion with the NCI Office of Planning and Assessment (OSPA). 

This more detailed, scientific version was published in Seminars in Oncology, December 2007, to involve a wider audience: 

Herlyn, M.; Halaban, R.; Ronai, Z.; Schuchter, L.; Berwick, M.; Pinkel, D Roadmap for new opportunities in melanoma research. Semin Oncol (2007) 34:566-576.

2009 - International Melanoma Congress

The MRF began a partnership with the Society for Melanoma Research (SMR) to convene the annual International melanoma Congresses, an open public meeting that provides an opportunity for investigators, clinicians and students to share their research results with an international, multidisciplinary audience and look for areas to collaborate.  A meeting report, "Melanoma from Bench to Bedside", was published in Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research, the offical journal of the International Federation of Pigment Cell Societies and the Society for Melanoma Research.

2009 - Membership on the review panel of the Department of Defense-funded Peer-reviewed Cancer Research

For the first time, 4 million dollars were earmarked to support research grants for melanoma and other skin cancers.  The MRF was invited to review and critique submitted proposals.

2010 - Launch of the MRF Breakthrough Consortium (MRFBC)

Over the past decade, great strides have been made in cataloguing the genetic abnormalities that permit the formation and growth of melanoma.  These findings have redefined melanoma into a group of diseases and have led to the development of targeted therapies such as BRAF inhibitors.  Early trial results, however, indicate that approximately 95% of melanomas will require concomitant treatment of two or more molecularly targeted therapies to counter the emergence of resistance to treatment.

The MRF convened the first meeting of the MRFBC in August 2009 with 10 centers of excellence, incorporating all 5 of the melanoma SPOREs, in order to facilitate clinical trials of combination therapies.  On February 24, 2010, Pulitzer prize winning journalist Amy Harmon wrote an article on drug development opportunities and challenges and described the newly founded Consortium.  The Consortium became formally incorporated in 2010.  To read Ms. Harmon's article, use the following link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/24/health/research/24trial.html?pagewanted=1&ref=target_cancer

2011 - Collaboration with NCI on Drug Development Strategy

On October 3, 2011 the MRFBC collaborated with the NCI to develop a multi-sector seminar on PD-1 inhibitors. The field is now comprised of multiple companies developing a variety of antibodies directed at several targets in the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway. Representatives from Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Amplimmune, Merck and Curetech participated, as well as leaders in the field of melanoma.    

2011 - MRF Launches CURE OM

On October 31, 2011 the MRF launched a new initiative - CURE OM - to improve the lives of people affected by ocular melanoma. CURE OM works to support and accelerate the development of effective treatments and, ultimately, a cure for ocular melanoma; improve the lives of people affected by ocular melanoma by creating systems and programs to provide education and support; and advocate for the ocular melanoma community.