Mark Foundation Bets $4M on High-Risk Science to Bridge Cancer Drug Gap

NEW YORK, NY – March 03, 2026 – The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research today committed $4 million to four visionary research teams, aiming to propel novel cancer therapies through the most perilous stage of drug development. The 2026 Drug Discovery Awards provide $1 million to each team, targeting a notorious funding gap that often stalls promising laboratory discoveries long before they can reach patients.

These awards represent more than a financial lifeline; they are a strategic intervention designed to bridge the chasm between academic science and clinical application. By pairing funding with industry-level expertise and commercialization support, The Mark Foundation is pioneering a new philanthropic playbook, one that actively shepherds high-risk, high-reward projects toward the finish line.

Navigating the 'Valley of Death' in Cancer Research

In the world of medical research, the journey from a breakthrough idea to an approved drug is fraught with challenges. The most treacherous part of this path is often called the 'valley of death'—the phase after a promising biological target has been identified in a lab but before a potential drug is ready for human trials. Groundbreaking academic work, typically funded by government bodies like the National Institutes of Health, excels at early-stage discovery. However, this funding often dries up when it comes to the expensive, complex, and high-risk work of identifying and optimizing a lead drug candidate.

On the other side of the valley, venture capital firms and large pharmaceutical companies wait for projects that are sufficiently 'de-risked'—meaning they have a higher probability of success. This leaves a vast middle ground where countless promising anticancer concepts languish due to a lack of resources and specialized expertise. Academic labs are rarely equipped for the rigorous demands of preclinical drug development, which includes medicinal chemistry, toxicology, and pharmacology studies.

"Identifying a promising target is only the first step of developing a new cancer treatment," said Ryan Schoenfeld, PhD, CEO of The Mark Foundation. "To turn an academic discovery into a therapeutic reality, researchers need more than funding." This is precisely the gap the Drug Discovery Awards program is designed to fill.

A New Model for Medical Innovation

The Mark Foundation’s approach is a departure from traditional grant-giving. It operates as an active partner, embedding its grantees in an ecosystem built to mimic the efficiency and rigor of the biotech industry. Beyond the $1 million in funding, each research team gains access to a global network of industry veterans who provide guidance on everything from experimental design to navigating the complexities of contract research organizations (CROs).

"The path from an unvalidated target to a drug candidate is notoriously challenging," explained Wendy Young, PhD, a biotech executive and member of the foundation's Industry Advisory Committee. "Our goal is to bring the same process and rigor we see in biotech and big pharma to the most exciting academic labs in the world. We aren't just funding their projects; we are partnering with these scientists to help them reach the next decision point."

This model also addresses a key point of friction in academic-industry partnerships: intellectual property. While venture capital investments often require complex negotiations over IP that can slow projects down, The Mark Foundation’s philanthropic model minimizes these restrictions. This allows scientists to maintain academic freedom while adhering to a structured development plan with key milestones, making their projects more attractive for future investment when they are ready for costly clinical trials. The foundation's own venture arm can also step in to facilitate commercialization, creating a seamless path from bench to bedside.

Four Shots on Goal: The 2026 Award-Winning Projects

The 2026 award recipients are tackling some of the most difficult challenges in oncology, pursuing novel strategies that have been deemed too risky for conventional funding streams. The four funded projects represent the cutting edge of cancer science:

• Targeting a Lethal Eye Cancer: A team at the University of California, San Francisco, including Aashish Manglik, MD, PhD, Michelle Arkin, PhD, and Boris Bastian, MD, PhD, is developing the first-ever therapies to directly disable Gq/11 proteins. These proteins are the primary genetic drivers of uveal melanoma, a rare but aggressive eye cancer with few effective treatments.

• Reprogramming Pancreatic Cancer Cells: At Stanford University, Steven Corsello, MD, and Nathanael Gray, PhD, are creating a first-in-class treatment for pancreatic cancer. Their approach aims to reprogram the TRIM21 E3 ligase enzyme to selectively mark and destroy key survival proteins within cancer cells, a highly specific form of targeted protein degradation.

• High-Precision Antibodies for Solid Tumors: Researchers William Sellers, MD, and Alex Burgin, PhD, at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard are engineering 'biparatopic' antibodies. These advanced molecules are designed to bind to two different sites on receptor tyrosine kinases—proteins that often drive cancer growth—to more effectively shut them down and deliver therapeutic payloads directly to aggressive solid tumors.

• A 'Molecular Glue' for Leukemia and Lung Cancer: At the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Eric Fischer, PhD, and Scott Armstrong, MD, PhD, are exploring a novel 'molecular glue' to degrade proteins that fuel cancers driven by faulty gene expression, such as certain leukemias and lung cancers. This strategy aims to create a more potent and effective way to eliminate the root causes of these diseases.

A Strategy of De-Risking Innovation

The selection of these projects underscores the foundation's core strategy: to embrace risk and de-risk promising ideas that others will not. The review process, conducted by a committee of drug discovery experts, prioritizes clinical and commercial tractability, but with a broader appetite for novel mechanisms and challenging targets.

This approach is already showing results. The Drug Discovery Award program, launched in 2020, has a growing track record of advancing projects through the development pipeline. For example, earlier funding supported work at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto to develop inhibitors for ClpP, a novel target for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), which is now progressing through lead optimization. Another project at NYU Grossman School of Medicine is identifying small molecule inhibitors for a newly discovered target in pancreatic cancer.

By systematically funding these early but critical stages, The Mark Foundation is building a robust pipeline of next-generation cancer therapies. Its hybrid model of philanthropy and venture-style development is not just a lifeline for individual projects; it is a powerful catalyst for the entire oncology ecosystem, accelerating the pace of innovation and offering new hope to patients and families affected by cancer.