The Stardust Foundation has awarded $7.5 million in grants for cancer, autism, and bipolar disorder research. The grants will be distributed to three major Valley biomedical, healthcare, and support organizations with the goal of fostering scientific collaboration.

Stardust will give $5 million to Scottsdale Healthcare, $1.5 million to the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), and $1 million to the Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center (SARRC).

"With corporate philanthropy on the decline, there is an incredible opportunity for entrepreneurial philanthropists, like Stardust, to facilitate and leverage their donations to build collaboration between major clinical, research, and biotech partners," said Jerry Bisgrove, founder of the Stardust Foundation and chief executive officer of Scottsdale-based Stardust Companies.

Scottsdale Healthcare, home of the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center, will receive funding for cancer research and treatment. The Virginia G. Piper Center is also TGen's primary clinical research site.

The center's Scottsdale Clinical Research Institute (SCRI) will receive $4 million of Scottsdale Healthcare's $5 million to develop and expand, in partnership with TGen, its genomic medicine and individual therapy program.

The money will fund a clinical trial to determine the effectiveness of individual therapies in patients with advanced cancer. Dr. Daniel Von Hoff, a senior investigator at TGen and director of its clinical translational research division and the medical research director at SCRI, will lead the trial.

In honor of the Stardust gift, Scottsdale Healthcare is naming the research building at the Piper Center the "Debi and Jerry Bisgrove Cancer Research Pavilion."

The remaining $1 million of the Scottsdale Healthcare gift will endow the cancer care coordinator position at the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center. The renamed "Debi Bisgrove Cancer Care Coordinator" is an oncology-trained nurse who guides and educates cancer patients through the diagnosis and treatment process. The service is free for the community.

The Stardust Foundation also awarded $1.5 million to TGen to fund research into bipolar disease. The funding will allow TGen to participate in a national project to find genes that cause the disease.

The Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center received $1 million to fund the Bisgrove Autism Research Center within its Campus for Exceptional Children. SARRC is collaborating with TGen on a three-pronged landmark study of autism in order to find underlying causes of the disorder.

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For more information:

TGen Press Release, 02/26/2006