In Lieu of Flowers	Create a Named Endowment	Planned Giving	Donate by Credit Card	What Your Donation Buys
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At Johns Hopkins, we have more ideas and leads than resources for pursuit of these. Each donation can help us explore novel avenues of research for both chronic hepatitis and liver cancer. If you wish to support liver cancer research at Johns Hopkins, please make your tax-deductible contribution payable to: Johns Hopkins University

Mail the dontaion to:

Robert A. Anders, MD, PhD
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
1550 Orleans Street
CRB II, Room 346
Baltimore, MD 21231

We receive a number of donations in lieu of flowers. This is a wonderful way to both honor a loved one and to help fight this terrible disease. These donations are made at very difficult times, and we therefore want to simplify the process. If you have lost a loved one and would like donations sent to Hopkins to help battle this disease in lieu of flowers, all you need to do is:


1. Ask the donor to:
   1. Make donations payable to: "Johns Hopkins University."
      
      
   2. Indicate on the memo line of the check the name of the individual in whose memory the donation is being made.
      
      
      
      
   3. Mail the donation to:
      Robert A. Anders, MD, PhD
      Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
      1550 Orleans Street
      CRB II, Room 346
      Baltimore, MD 21231
   
   
   
2. Please include the name and address of where you would like acknowledgments to be sent (or you may call our office at 410-955-9132).

   When we receive memorial donations, we send a thank you to the donor and we also send a complete list of the names and address of the donors to the relative of the deceased.

   We realize that the death of a loved one is extremely difficult. We hope these simplified instructions will help those of you who wish to honor your loved one with bequests to Johns Hopkins for liver cancer research.

Research requires money, and although most of the support for medical research comes from the federal government via the National Institutes of Health (NIH), it is private philanthropy that can provide the margin of excellence to a research enterprise. Private funds are flexible and can be deployed quickly to take advantage of new ideas and new people. Private funds also can form a constant base for faculty support upon which grant support can be superimposed. Private funds are particularly needed to support research on liver cancer. This is because liver cancer research is woefully underfunded by the NIH. There have been several examples of private giving having a significant impact on a cancer. For example, the Clayton Fund in Basic Colon Cancer Research has laid the foundation for the remarkable success of the colon cancer research team here at Hopkins. Thanks to the Clayton Fund, many of the most significant discoveries in cancer biology in the last decade were made by the colon cancer team at Johns Hopkins (Bert Vogelstein who leads this team is now the most cited scientist in all of science).

Just as the Clayton Fund has had an impact on our understanding of colon cancer, so too would the establishment of a Fund for liver cancer research have a fundamental impact on the fight against liver cancer.

Endowments are wonderful ways to honor a loved one. Once established, the principal of the endowment is invested by the University. A portion of the income generated each year is reinvested to insure the long-term growth of the Fund. The remainder of the income generated is given to the scientists to support their research.

(Endowments start at $100,000. A plaque is placed in the research labs honoring the donor. If they reach the $10 million level, then the endowment can be used to name a research center). Visit http://jhu.planyourlegacy.org/ for more information.

Endowed Chair for Liver Cancer Research

The last five years have brought remarkable advances to our understanding of the genetics of liver cancer. Indeed, at the genetic level, cancer of the liver is currently among the better characterized neoplasms. This growing understanding of the genetics of liver cancer will form the basis of new screening and diagnostic tests for the early detection of liver cancer; they are used to identify patients at risk for familial forms of liver cancer; and they can be used to characterize even the most subtle pathologic changes. In addition, and most importantly, an understanding of the genetic changes associated with the development of liver cancer will form the foundation for developing novel, rational, gene-based therapies for liver cancer.

The establishment of an endowed chair for liver cancer research would allow us to pursue high-risk research work. We believe this work will advance our understanding of liver cancer, not by small steps, but instead by leaps and bounds. All too often, scientists focus their efforts on "evolutionary" work because it is safer, and more of a sure bet. Endowed chairs allow scientists such to pursue revolutionary work. In addition named chairs are a wonderful way of permanently honoring the donor.

The cost for a named endowed chair is approximately $2.3 million.

Physicians and scientists must make critical decisions when they come to the end of their standard training. They must decide whether or not to pursue an academic career in research. Those who choose a career in research must then choose a sub-specialty area on which to focus their research efforts. These critical career choices are often made for rather trivial reasons. Countless physicians and scientists with enormous potential have chosen not pursue an academic research career because of a lack of a secure fellowship program.

At the same time, young minds are the most creative minds. Human creativity peaks at a rather young age; as our fund of knowledge increases our creativity paradoxically decreases. Indeed, some of the major new ideas in cancer research in the last several years have come from young scientists in their training. For example, Victor Velculescu here at Johns Hopkins created the idea for the revolutionary technology of serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE). Victor did this while he was a post-doctoral student in the Johns Hopkins cancer research laboratories.

We propose to create an endowed fellowship training program in liver cancer research at Hopkins. This program will provide secured funding to young scientists and physicians wishing to pursue a career in liver cancer research. The research fellowship program will not be a standard fellowship program. Instead it will take advantage of and most importantly encourage the creativity of the trainees. The fellow will not be a mere technician following detailed instructions from a mentor. Instead, the fellows will be given extensive free time and the fellowship will be focused on creating novel new technologies which can be applied to cancer research and on identifying new technologies, developed in other fields, which can be applied to liver cancer research.

This approach will bring more minds to the battle against liver cancer. Furthermore, the focus on creative spark will mean that our understanding will advance not in safe yet small steps, but rather in daring leaps.

BUDGET

1 Fellow (1 year X $50,000/year)	$50,000
1 Fellow (2 years X $50,000/year)	$100,000 (most Fellowships last 2 years)
Endowed Fellowship	$1,700,000

A number of people have asked how they can make a bequest and about other forms of planned giving. Planned giving can be a wonderful way to support liver cancer research. Depending on the arrangements you choose you can also:

1) Reduce your income taxes,
2) Get more favorable capital gains tax treatment,
3) Increase your spendable income,
4) Retain payments for life, and
5) Achieve no-cost, worry-free asset management.

To learn more about planned giving opportunities visit http://jhu.plannedgifts.org/ways_to_give.html or contact the Planned Giving Office at Johns Hopkins:

John C. Jeppi
Gift Planning Advisor
Phone: (410) 516-7550

One human gene contained within a cloning vector		$10
Membranes for screening new genes		$15
Reagents needed to isolate DNA from a patients' blood sample		$20
A pair of PCR primers used to amplify one gene		$30
Bacterial clone containing tumor-related gene		$30
Vials for freezing tumor samples		$35
Enzyme to precisely cut DNA		$40
Scalpel blades for dissection of tumor samples		$55
Enzyme to join DNA fragments		$60
Updates to lab manual		$70
Flasks for growing tumor cells		$75
Radiolabel used to label DNA for sequencing and probing		$100
Tumor cell line		$100
Gel mix used to resolve DNA on gels		$100
A vial of enzyme to modify or amplify DNA		$100
Serum to grow cancer cells		$130
DNA purification kit		$150
Reagents to introduce genes into cancer cells		$180
Purification kit for tumor-suppressor proteins		$230
X-ray film to detect DNA sequence of a gene		$270
Plates for drug-screening reactions		$380
Enzyme to amplify DNA from tumors		$400
DNA fragments to study a new gene		$500
Lab refrigerator used in ongoing experiments		$700
Digital camera for web page construction/updates		$800
Set of pipettes to measure chemical solutions		$900
Lab computer to access gene database		$1,800
Ultraviolet light and camera to visualize DNA		$2,000
Incubator for tumor cell culture		$2,700
Set of DNA sequencing apparatus		$3,800
Lab freezer		$5,000
Centrifuge for drug screens and purifications		$7,000
PCR machine to amplify DNA		$9,000
Drier for DNA gels and purifications		$12,000
Cancer Research Technician		$30,000/yr
Drug library to screen for new therapeutics (19,000 drugs)		$38,000
Research fellow and supplies		$50,000/yr
Named endowment		$100,000 and up
Named endowed research fellowship		$1.7 million
Named endowed chair for liver cancer research		$2.3 million
Named endowed liver cancer center		$10 million