Our Mission

The Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research is dedicated to providing financial support to offer highly qualified scientists the opportunity to pursue research into the causes and origins of cancer.

The goal of the Fund is to provide support to the brightest individual scientists pursuing careers in cancer research while promoting and emphasizing the value and contribution of the individual in keeping with the spirit of the conception of the Fund.

FINANCIAL REPORTS

2008 FINANCIAL REPORT >
2007 FINANCIAL REPORT >

JCC FUND NEWSLETTERS
Check out our current and past newletters to find out about the newest JCCF fellows and what they are researching, details on our annual retreats, and other interesting articles.

2012 JCC FUND NEWSLETTER >
2011 JCC FUND NEWSLETTER >
2010 JCC FUND NEWSLETTER >
2009 JCC FUND NEWSLETTER >
2008 JCC FUND NEWSLETTER >
2007 JCC FUND NEWSLETTER >
2006 JCC FUND NEWSLETTER >
2005 JCC FUND NEWSLETTER >

We will accept referee and sponsor letters by email until February 15. Referees may send letters and ratings (from A to E) directly to us at letters@jccfund.org. Sponsor letters may also be sent to the same address. Please paste the contents of your letter inside the body of your email.

THE JANE COFFIN CHILDS FUND FELLOWS 2010 – 2013

FELLOW:

Oliver W Liu

Biology Department, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Stanford University / Stanford, CA

Dendrites of neurons often adopt complex and morphologically diverse branched arbor structures. The development and organization of these arbors fundamentally determine the potential input and connectivity of a given neuron. My research in the laboratory of Kang Shen has focused on identifying the molecular mechanisms that regulate branching and morphogenesis of neuronal dendrites using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as a model system.

Previously, as a graduate student at the University of California, San Francisco, I worked in the laboratory of Hiten Madhani, where I developed large-scale systematic genetic approaches to identify genes involved in pathogenesis by the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans. As an undergraduate at Harvard University, I worked in the laboratory of Ed Harlow where I studied the mechanisms of transcriptional repression by the tumor suppressor protein pRB.

FELLOW:

Vicki P. Losick

Department of Embryology Carnegie Institute of Science, Baltimore, MD

Identifying cellular mechanisms of tissue repair is critical to our understanding of the normal wound healing process. I am studying the cellular mechanisms tissues use to respond to damage or injury in the adult Drosophila melanogaster.

As a postdoctoral fellow in Allan Spradling’s laboratory, I am working to combine my former
research expertise in microbiology and innate immunity with the study of cellular processes of tissue repair in the adult fruit fly. My interest in biomedical research began in college, with an undergraduate research project on viral protein stability. A particularly influential moment was seeing first-hand the impacts of infectious diseases like malaria during a semester abroad in Kenya. This experience led me to pursue graduate thesis work at Tufts University. In the laboratory of Ralph Isberg, my project involved characterizing mammalian host cell signaling pathways required for the growth of Legionella, a human pathogen known to cause severe pneumonia. As part of my professional life, I enjoy mentoring and teaching young scientists. Outside of the lab, I’m an aspiring amateur golfer, jazz enthusiast, and cook.

FELLOW:

Lindsey J. Macpherson

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics Columbia University, New York, NY

I’m investigating how taste information is encoded at the first relay between taste receptor cells and the gustatory neurons which innervate them., As a third-generation San Diegan who went to the University of California, San Diego as an undergrad and The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla for graduate school, and who started a postdoc at Charles Zuker’s lab at UCSD, I thought I might have beaten the odds and would be able to complete my scientific training in my beloved native city. Although I had been open to the possibility of moving, I considered myself lucky to be able to live so close to friends and family while pursuing my scientific career at such highly regarded research institutes. So you can imagine my shock when Charles announced his intention to move the laboratory to Columbia University in New York City! It’s been a year since the move, and while I’m still a San Diegan at heart, New York has given me a fresh perspective on life and science.