Israel Cancer Research Fund

The Israel Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) is a fund for cancer research. The ICRF was founded in 1975 by a group of American and Canadian physicians, scientists, and lay people who sought to prevent the permanent loss of Israel's cancer researchers to foreign universities due to the lack of funding in Israel for newly minted Ph.D.s, post-doctoral fellows, and accomplished young scientists (a phenomenon known to many as Israel's "brain drain"). With chapters in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal and Jerusalem, ICRF annually sponsors a grant review process conducted by an expert panel of U.S. and Canadian scientists and oncologists, and modeled on the NIH grant-making process.

Awards are granted directly to the Israeli cancer researchers at all of the leading (more than 20) academic and biomedical research centers throughout Israel. ICRF has funded more than $87 million to-date in awards to Israeli cancer researchers via more than 2,700 fellowships, project grants, career development awards, and professorships.[1] Grants have been provided to over 20 institutions including all major hospitals, universities, and cancer research projects throughout Israel. Breakthrough discoveries by ICRF-funded scientists have led to the development of: Gleevec -used in the successful treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia; Doxil - used in the treatment of breast & ovarian cancer as well as AIDS; p53 – a key tumor suppressor; RAD 51 which identifies the likelihood of breast cancer occurring in women who carry the BRCA 2 gene and Velcade - listed in the Wall Street Journal as the top medical breakthrough of 2003 and used in the treatment of multiple myeloma. The basic research ICRF funds have led to treatments and drugs that are benefiting cancer patients around the world.