RESEARCH AWARDS

The Awards Committee continues to be active with 9 awards, one research grant award and one combined SNO/Tumor Section award administered through the Tumor Section Awards Committee.  Most of the awards are limited to Tumor Section members, providing an additional incentive for membership.  The award winners for this CNS meeting will be recognized on Tuesday afternoon at the Tumor Section session.

For information regarding the Tumor Section awards, please contact:

Gene H. Barnett, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Brain Tumor & Neuro-Oncology Center
Cleveland Clinic - R20
9500 Euclid Ave.
Cleveland, OH 44195
Phone: (216) 445-1379
Fax: (216) 636-2437
E-mail: barnett@neus.ccf.org

American Brain Tumor Association (ABTA) Clinical Research Grant (Tumor Section members only): The American Brain Tumor Association Clinical Research Award is a new,  $50,000 grant designed to support faculty who are involved in clinical research.  The award is designed to provide pilot clinical data by the end of the one-year funding period for research having direct clinical application.  Awards are designed to strengthen applications for permanent outside funding.  Applicants should be full-time neurosurgeons who are members of the AANS/CNS Section on Tumors. Grant application forms are available from the ABTA, or from the Section on Tumors.  Applications will be expected to provide evidence of clinical trial expertise, a well designed hypothesis and clinical research plan along with any relevant supporting preliminary data, IRB approval for the proposed study, eligibility criteria and a plan for subject accrual, and a timetable for completion of the clinical trial.  Multicenter collaborations are permitted. The successful grant applicant will be chosen after a peer-reviewed process conducted by members of the Executive Committee of the Tumor Section of the AANS/CNS. The scientific merit of the proposed study, as well as the credentials of the applicant and the support of the institution will also be important factors.  Proposals are due by January 15 and the grant is awarded on March 1 as well as announced at each AANS meeting.
Download application form

Bittner Award & Lectureship (Tumor Section Members Only)
The Ronald Bittner Award is endowed by Mrs. E. Laurie Bittner in memory of her husband, Dr. Ronald L. Bittner. It is awarded to the Best Abstract Paper submitted to the AANS meeting on Brain Tumor Research by a Resident or Junior Faculty Member.  This year’s winner, Dr. Matthew J McGirt, for  “Extent of surgical resection is independently associated with survival in patients with malignant and low-grade brain astrocytoma”. This award includes a $500 honorarium and $1000 traveling scholarship.

The Bittner Lecturer for the upcoming 2008 AANS meeting will be Dr. Eric Holland.
Previous Winners

Journal of Neuro-Oncology Award
The Journal of Neuro-Oncology Award is sponsored by Kluwer Academic Publishers and is presented at the annual AANS meeting to a highly ranked abstract in either clinical or basic science as related to neurooncology.  This year’s recipient, to be awarded at the 2008 AANS meeting in Chicago, IL is Dr. Raymond Sawaya for his paper “Impact of Surgery on the Leptomeningeal Dissemination of Supratentorial Brain Metastasis”.  A one year subscription to the Journal of Neuro-Oncology and a framed certificate are awarded.
Previous Winners

Mahaley Clinical Award (Tumor Section Members Only)
The Mahaley Award is given at each of the AANS and CNS meetings to a neurosurgery resident, fellow or attending who submits the best clinical study in neuro-oncology. The 2007 CNS Mahaley Clinical Research Award recipient was Dr. Randy Jensen from the University of Utah for his presentation entitled “Outcomes of Patients with Brain Metastases for Melanoma and Renal Cell Carcinoma Primarily Managed with Stereotactic Radiosurgery”.  At the 2008 AANS meeting, the award will be presented to Andrew Parsa M.D., Ph.D from MD Anderson for his paper “Prolific CD8 T cell infiltrate in newly diagnosed Glioblastoma patients correlates with long term survival”. The recipient is awarded a $1000 honorarium.
Previous Winners

Preuss Award (Tumor Section Members Only)
The Preuss Award, sponsored by the Preuss Foundation, is given at each of the AANS and CNS meetings to a young scientist investigating brain tumors, within 10 years of training, who has submitted the best basic science research paper.

The 2007 CNS meeting winner, Dr. Daniel Cahill, from Massachusetts General Hospital was the 2007 CNS meeting winner for his presentation entitled “Loss of Mismatch Repair Protein MSH6 in Human Glioblastoma Is Associated with Tumor Progression during Temozolomide Treatment”.  The 2008 AANS winner is Dr. John K. Park of NINDS for his presentation “Interleukin-13 Receptor Alpha2 Expression in Glioblastoma Multiforme”.  This award has a $1000 honorarium.
Previous Winners

Farber Award
Sponsored by the Farber Foundation, the Farber Award is presented at the annual meetings of the AANS and Society for Neuro-oncology on alternate years and the awardee speaks at both meetings the year of the award.  The recipient is selected by the presidents of the two societies and the Section awards chair based on nominees from the executive committees of both societies.  The award recognizes the most promising investigators who are achieving significant results early in their careers and is given only once to a recipient.

The 2007 Farber Award and lecture were presented at the AANS meeting in Washington, D.C.  Dr. Paul Mischel from UCLA was the recipient. Dr. Mischel’s career in neuro-oncology research has led to numerous important contributions in quantitative analysis of signal transduction pathways, stem-cell related pathways, and gene expression networks in clinical samples.  His presentation focused on his work with prediction of tumor response to EGFR inhibitors.

The 2008 Farber Award winner is Dr. E. Antonio Chiocca.  Dr. Chiocca is widely regarded as a “thought leader” in the field of neuro-oncology and has directed key laboratory and clinical research, particularly focused on the use of viral therapies for malignant gliomas. His presentation will be on Tuesday, April 29th.

There have been some changes to the selection process for the Farber award that will directly involve Mr. Farber in the final selection process after nominations by the executive committee and review by the leadership of the Tumor Section and Society for Neuro-Oncology.  The award is for $5,000.
Previous Winners

Young Investigator Award (Tumor Section Members Only)
Sponsored by the American Brain Tumor Association, the Young Investigator Award is given at each AANS and CNS meeting to a young faculty member involved in neuro-oncology research who has demonstrated outstanding potential for future basic science research.  The applicant must have been out of training for less than six years.

The CNS 2007 recipient of the Young Investigator Award sponsored was Dr. Jose Valerio from Cleveland Clinic for his abstract “Glioma-specific Sequence-independent Toxicity of Small Interfering Double-stranded RNA Molecules”.  The 2008 AANS winner is Ichiro Nakano, MD, PhD for his Andrew T. Parsa  for his abstract entitled “Identification of Inhibitor for Brain Tumor Stem Cells”.  A $2000 honorarium accompanies this award.
Previous Winners

National Brain Tumor Foundation Translational Research Grant Award
The National Brain Tumor Translational Research Grant Award is given by the NBTF for the best translational research grant proposal submitted by the end of May each year.  The winner is announced at the annual CNS meeting each year.

This year’s proposals were reviewed by a subgroup of the Tumor Section’s Executive Committee.  The 2007 winner was Dr. Stephen Skirboll  of Stanford University is this year’s winner for his paper “The Colony-Forming Antibody Cell Array: A Novel Screening Strategy to Further Identify Cancer Stem Cells in Human Malignant Gliomas”.

Through the efforts of Mike McDermott and Rob Tufel from the NBTF, the funding for this grant increase from $15,000 to $50,000 per award beginning with the 2007 winner.   
Previous Winners

The Integra Foundation Award (Tumor Section Members Only)
The Integra Foundation Award, sponsored by the Integra Foundation, is given at each of the AANS and CNS meetings for the best research or clinical paper submitted investigating benign brain, spinal or peripheral nerve tumors.  The recipient of the Integra Foundation Award at the 2007 CNS meeting was Dr. Martin Baggenstos of George Washington University for his paper “Mechanisms of Morbid Hearing Loss Associated with Tumors of the Endolymphatic Sac in von Hippel-Lindau Disease”.  .  At the 2008 AANS meeting, the winner is Dr. Joung Lee for his presentation “Operative Outcome Following Meningioma Surgery: A Single Surgeon's Experience with 600 Cases”. There is a monetary award of $1000.
Previous Winners

Synthes Skull Base Award (Tumor Section Members Only)
The Synthes Skull Base Award is given to an attending neurosurgeon, resident or fellow within the Tumor Section who submits the best abstract related to skull base surgery.  This award is given at the annual meetings of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and Congress of Neurological Surgeons.  Dr. Franco DeMonte, Chair of the Skull Base Committee, was largely responsible for obtaining this award through a generous contribution from the Synthes Corporation.  The CNS 2007 winner was Dr. Aghi Manish for “Management of Recurrent and Refractory Cushing's Disease with Reoperation and/or Proton Radiosurgery: Analysis of a Single Institution Experience”.  The winner for the 2008 AANS meeting is Michael Sughrue MD for his presentation “The Natural History of Untreated Acoustic Neuroma”.   The award includes a $1000 honorarium.
Previous Winners

BrainLAB Community Neurosurgery Award (Tumor Section Members Only)
The BrainLAB Community Neurosurgery Award is awarded at the annual meetings of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and Congress of Neurological Surgeons.  This award is given to a neurosurgeon practicing in a non-academic setting with the best abstract related to central nervous system tumors.  Drs. Michael McDermott and Ronald Warnick were instrumental in securing this award given through the generosity of BrainLAB.  Dr. Luciano Mastronardi received the BrainLab Community Award at the 2007 CNS for his presentation “Utility of Intraoperative MR-Tractography for the Resection of Intracranial Tumors”.  Dr. Alan  Villavicencio will receive the award at the 2008 AANS meeting in Chicago for his paper “Survival Following Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Newly Diagnosed and Recurrent Glioblastoma Multiforme “. Recipients are awarded $1000.
Previous Winners

BrainLAB International Fellowship
The AANS/CNS Section on Tumors/BrainLAB International Fellowship was awarded for the first time at the 2007 AANS meeting. This award, to be given once a year, provides funding for a neurosurgeon outside North America to spend one year of mentored neurosurgical oncology research in the United States. The proposals are reviewed by a subgroup of the Tumor Section’s Executive Committee.
Previous Winners