Dr. Norton Receives Goldman Sachs Grant

Dr. Jeffrey Norton, a professor in the Division of General Surgery, has been awarded a grant from the Goldman Sachs Foundation. The $200,000 in funds will support two years of research studying fibrosis in pancreas and breast cancers. Co-PI's on the grant include Drs. Michael Longaker, Deshka Foster, Irene Wapnir and Howard Chang.

"Breast and especially pancreas cancers are known to recruit fibroblasts to form what is called the "tumor stroma," a sort-of scaffold on which the transformed cancer cells proliferate," said Foster, a general surgery resident and PhD candidate in cancer biology. "We are interested in better understanding the heterogeneity and signaling pathways of these cancer-associated fibroblasts, towards identifying novel fibrosis-targeting therapeutic strategies that could be used alongside chemo- and immuno-therapies."

The grant, which was previously known as the "Emerson Collective" grant, is administered by the Stanford Cancer Institute.