New Funding of $2 Million for Research Bringing Us One Step Closer to a Cure for Follicular Lymphoma

The Follicular Lymphoma Foundation (FLF) today announced it has awarded four research grants of up to $500 thousand each, a total of $2 million over the next two years, to support targeted and innovative research projects into a Follicular Lymphoma (FL) cure – an incurable form of blood cancer and the second most common type of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.

The grants have been made through the Foundation’s “CURE FL Awards” programme to support targeted and innovative research projects. Each offers a clear path to clinical trial to immediately benefit the more than one 1 million FL patients living with Follicular Lymphoma around the globe, and which will deliver on the Foundation’s mission of finding a cure and finding it fast.

In January 2022 the CURE FL Awards programme issued a call for transformative projects in areas of treatment that the Foundation’s team has identified as being the most likely to deliver rapid progress towards a cure to be made available to patients as soon as possible.

The recipients of the 2022 CURE FL Awards research grants are:

Hans-Guido Wendel, MD, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Joshua Brody, MD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Wendy Béguelin, PhD, Weill Cornell Medicine
Patricia Pérez-Galán, PhD, Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi I Sunyer
Commenting on the awarding of the grants, Dr Mitchell Smith, Chief Medical Officer of the Follicular Lymphoma Foundation (FLF) said: “Previously, Follicular Lymphoma has rarely been a central focus for drug development, and we want to change this. With this funding programme, we are putting this disease front and centre in Lymphoma research, and catalysing the development of therapies for the underserved patient populations. By awarding $2 million of funding over the next two years to these four highly skilled investigator teams, we believe we will rapidly move one step closer to finding better treatments.”

Nicky Greenhalgh, Founder of the Living with Follicular Lymphoma community and Patient Representative on the Awards review panel) said: “The CURE FL Awards mean real progress towards a cure. In speaking on behalf of our members; we feel supported – it helps us to worry less and look forward to a positive future. Wheels are in motion to find cures for us all, so thank you.”

The FLF worked closely with its partners, the Centre for Strategic Philanthropy (CSP) at the Milken Institute, to develop the CURE FL Awards programme. The recipients of the grants were chosen with the input and support of a wide range of experts in the global FL field together with patients, to ensure their views and experiences are a part of the development process for new treatments.