Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network Announces $600,000 in Funding to Propel Breakthroughs in Bladder Cancer Research

July 16, 2024

Awardees Honored for Innovative Approaches to Advance Bladder Cancer Research

(Bethesda, MD) The Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network (BCAN) is pleased to announce the recipients of its prestigious 2024 Research Innovation Awards. These awards recognize outstanding researchers who have shown exceptional commitment and innovative approaches in the field of bladder cancer research.

This year’s honorees are Bishoy Faltas, MD, Chief Research Officer of the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine, the Director of Bladder Cancer Research and Associate Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, and Alexander Wyatt, PhD, Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia. These highly competitive grants, each providing $300,000 in funding over two years, are part of the more than $10 million in research grants allocated by BCAN to date. These funds aim to address critical barriers, identify knowledge gaps, and improve outcomes for bladder cancer patients and families.

The urgent need for research is clear: there are more than 725,000 people in the United States living with bladder cancer. Additionally, it is projected that in 2024, over 83,000 individuals will be diagnosed with bladder cancer, with more than 16,000 expected to succumb to this devastating disease.

“BCAN is honored to support the groundbreaking proposals of Dr. Faltas and Dr. Wyatt. The Research Innovation Awards enable high-risk, high-reward projects that have the potential to bring about significant breakthroughs for bladder cancer patients and their families,” said Andrea Maddox-Smith, Chief Executive Officer of the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network. “We deeply appreciate the generosity of BCAN’s donors and corporate partners, whose contributions fund research that can create more and better tomorrows for bladder cancer patients and their loved ones.”

Dr. Faltas’s project aims to create advanced digital models, called “Bio-digital Avatars,” that use data from lab-grown mini-tumors and DNA from patients’ blood to help doctors choose the best treatments for bladder cancer. These avatars will be customized to each patient’s unique cancer and can adjust as the cancer changes during treatment.

Dr. Wyatt’s proposal aims to use a new method that can study how bladder cancer cells behave by analyzing a simple blood sample. This approach will help understand why some bladder cancers resist treatment and grow in different parts of the body, eliminating the need for invasive tissue biopsies.

Dr. Faltas’s research focuses on understanding the biological mechanisms of bladder cancer, particularly the role of APOBEC3 enzymes in cancer evolution. Dr. Faltas has published extensively in high-impact journals and has received numerous prestigious awards and significant funding for his work.

Dr. Wyatt’s research focuses on genomic alterations in metastatic genitourinary cancers and developing minimally invasive biomarkers for therapy selection, supported by numerous peer-reviewed grants and collaborations with leading oncologists and urologists.

The Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network’s (BCAN’s) mission is to increase public awareness about bladder cancer, advance bladder cancer research, and provide educational and support services for the bladder cancer community.

Contact:

Mark Story
Director of Communications and Marketing
mstory@bcan.org
301-215-9099, x208