Dkms Funds Research Scholarships Funding Support For Blood Cancer Research – Call For Submissions Currently Underway

Tübingen, October 07, 2020: Young scientists are invited to apply for the John Hansen Research Grant until 8 December. With this grant, DKMS Stiftung Leben Spenden (Foundation for Giving Life) supports up to four international young scientists each year who want to advance the fight against blood cancer with their promising research projects, especially in the field of blood stem cell transplantation and cell therapy. The scholarship holders each receive $270,000 (€240,000) for the pursuit of their work.

DKMS Stiftung Leben Spenden (Foundation for Giving Life) invites young scientists from all over the world to apply for the John Hansen Research Grant with their research projects. Each winner will receive $270,000 (€240,000) over a period of three years. Up to four scientists with promising research projects in the field of stem cell transplantation and cell therapy dedicated to the fight against blood cancer and life-threatening blood disorders will be funded. One of the prerequisites for participation is a doctorate or comparable qualification, which date back twelve years at maximum. All application requirements and further details about the John Hansen Research Grant are available at www.dkms.org/john-hansen-grant. Applicants can also request the documents by e-mail to grant@dkms.org. The closing date for applications is December 8, 2020.

DKMS – as a blood stem cell donor center committed to medicine and science

With more than ten million registered stem cell donors, DKMS is well-known as international nonprofit organization in the fight against blood cancer. Until today DKMS has provided more than 87,000 patients across the globe a chance at life by facilitating blood stem cell transplants. In addition, the world’s leading stem cell donor center is highly committed in the medical-scientific field in order to continually improve the survival and healing chances of blood cancer patients. This includes the HLA high-performance laboratory in Dresden and its own research unit, the Clinical Trials Unit. Together they initiate trend-setting research projects. One scientific focus is the further optimization of donor selection for the perfect “match”: In order for the stem cells of an unrelated donor to settle in the patient’s body, the tissue characteristics as well as a few further parameters have to match as closely as possible. The Clinical Trials Unit systematically searches for additional immunogenetic factors that could positively influence the success of a stem cell transplantation.

“In order to give more and more blood cancer patients worldwide a second chance at life, we have made it our mission to register as many donors as possible,” explains Marcel van den Brink, Chairman of the Board of DKMS Stiftung Leben Spenden. But DKMS does much more. As long as there are still patients who, for example, suffer relapses or die from life-threatening complications such as graft-versus-host-disease, the goal is far from being achieved. “It is important to us to drive scientific progress in this medical niche area. Only in this way can we contribute to discovering new blood cancer therapies and make them increasingly successful and safe for patients,” said van den Brink.

John A. Hansen – Medical pioneer and kind-hearted physician

An important element is the promotion of young researchers with the John Hansen Research Grant (until 2019: Mechtild Harf Research Grant). Since 2015 the DKMS Stiftung Leben Spenden awards up to four young scientists per year. The research grant is named after John A. Hansen, a preeminent oncologist and leader in the field of immunogenetics at the renowned Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle – and an empathic medical specialist with a kind heart. After he passed away in 2019, the DKMS Foundation renamed the Mechtild Harf Research Grant in his honor. With his excellent achievements in the field of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, he made a significant contribution to increasing the efficacy and safety of blood stem cell and bone marrow transplants – and thus gave numerous patients a new chance at life. As a long-standing member of the DKMS Foundation Board and member of the Medical Advisory Board of DKMS, he was deeply attached to the DKMS family.

Further information about the John Hansen Research Grant, the application requirements, and the current four fellowship recipients can be found at www.dkms.org/john-hansen-grant.

Corporate Comm India (CCI Newswire)