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:

Florian T. Merkle

Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA

The sleep disorder narcolepsy is caused by the degeneration of hypocretin neurons. The goal of my research is to derive hypocretin neurons from narcoleptic patients to study the cause of hypocretin neuron loss.

I was born in Konstanz, Germany and moved to Minnesota at an early age. As a teenager, I decided I wanted to become a neurosurgeon and spent my summers in a neurosurgery laboratory. I discovered I preferred working at the bench and, as an undergraduate at Caltech, I explored different fields of neuroscience. I was most fascinated by the problem of how the brain develops, and studied the lineage and organization of neural stem cells and their progeny in the postnatal brain. My current work combines my interests in cell type specification, the connection of circuitry to behavior, and developing in-vitro models of human diseases. In my free time, I enjoy hiking, cycling, cooking, and bartending.

FELLOW:

David G. Mets

Brainard Department of Physiology, University of California, San Francisco, California

FELLOW:

Prashant Mishra

Division of Biology California Institute of Technology / Pasadena, CA

I am investigating mechanisms of mitochondrial fusion within cells. The goal is to gain a better understanding of how mitochondrial dynamics are regulated.

My interest in scientific research began when I was young, and was fostered through participation in research programs and science fairs in junior high and high school. After completing my bachelor's degree in biochemical sciences at Harvard University, I worked briefly for a biotechnology company developing treatments for patients suffering from rare genetic disorders. I then entered an MD/PhD program the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, allowing me to conduct basic science research while receiving training in patient care. I currently conduct research as a postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology, and plan to establish my own basic science laboratory in the future.