Fox Chase Cancer Center Endowed Chairs

How Endowed Chairs Benefit…
The Chairholder

Appointment to an endowed chair rewards a scientist’s professional contributions, recognizes the value of his or her research endeavors – and safeguards the funding needed to continue these pioneering inquiries. Those who support a chair endowment become vital partners in our scientists’ groundbreaking, lifesaving discoveries.

“In addition to the scientifc recognition connected with the creation of the Carol and Kenneth Weg Chair in Human Genetics, the Wegs’ leadership gift acknowledges the importance of human cancer genetics to our Center’s overall mission. The Weg Chair has provided an endowment that has supported a variety of research activities of the Human Genetics Program and my laboratory. For example, it has permitted me to accelerate our research by funding a promising graduate student who is investigating the role of the akt2 gene and other cooperating oncogenes in the development and progression of lymphoma.” 
— Joseph R. Testa, PhD, 
holder of the Carol and Kenneth Weg Chair in Human Genetics

How Endowed Chairs Benefit…
The Philanthropist

Endowing and naming a chair provides the opportunity to honor a loved one with a memorial that will last for many, many years — or recognize a doctor’s compassion and scientific contribution.

Those who provide the funds to endow a chair at Fox Chase Cancer Center have the satisfaction of knowing that their partnership with us will last far into the future — not only in the form of scientific breakthroughs and the advancement of new forms of cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment, but also in the countless priceless moments enjoyed by those whose lives we save.

Endowing a chair offers the opportunity to advance great ideas and to align aspirations with those of a cancer leader of the highest caliber.

How Endowed Chairs Benefit…
Fox Chase Cancer Center

Endowed chairs provide a steady and predictable flow of funds in perpetuity, allowing the institution to strengthen the quality of its programs and services beyond levels that other funding sources alone could support.

The remarkable faculty who hold endowed chairs have made meaningful contributions to cancer medicine. Here are some of the exciting avenues that endowed chairholders are exploring here at Fox Chase Cancer Center — avenues that will lead in ways yet unknown to improvements in cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment for our patients:

  • Investigating the ways BRCA1/BRCA2 genetic mutations interact with other genetic and environmental factors to influence ovarian and breast cancer occurrence
  • Researching blood biomarkers to improve early detection of breast and ovarian cancer
  • Evaluating methods of communication to first degree relatives of breast and ovarian cancer patients, who are at high risk of developing cancer themselves, in order to improve prevention and early detection
  • Using genetically modifed melanoma-susceptible mice to study the mechanisms underlying tumor promotion, the capacity of cutaneous melanomas for metastasis, and the use of personalized genetic immunotherapy to prevent melanoma recurrence
  • Investigating the biological implications of DNA abnormalities found in malignant mesothelioma, a highly lethal form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos launching a new program for asbestos workers, to use new protein markers in the blood for detection of mesothelioma at an earlier, more treatable stage
  • Pioneering minimally invasive treatments for kidney, prostate, testicular and bladder cancer — such as laparoscopic and robotic surgery — that preserve patients' normal genitourinary function
  • Exploring epigenetics and progenitor cells — two new views of cancer — to develop novel diagnostics and therapies
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