Entertainment Industry Foundation

Michael John Balaoing is currently Vice President for Programs of the Entertainment Industry Foundation. In this capacity, Michael oversees a $ 25 million grantmaking portfolio of 300 organizations across the United States and responsible with assessing grantmaking risks and opportunities. Prior to this, Michael was Program Director of the California Wellness Foundation and Consultant for the Los Angeles County Children's Planning Council. Michael is likewise involved in various professional organizations such as the Liberty Hill Foundation, Pacific Council on International Policy, Council on Foundations, Leadership Learning Community and Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy. His community and civic involvements include the California Service Corps, Girls, Inc. of LA and the Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA). A member of the State Bar of California, Michael obtained his law degree from UCLA and Bachelors degree in International Relations from Princeton University. In 1987, Michael participated in Harvard University's Overseas Development Network Independent Study Abroad under the auspices of the Philippine Business for Social Progress. He spent time in the Philippines doing extensive fieldwork among grassroots organizations.

With EIF seed funding, Dr. Bernard Weinstein has made exciting progress in identifying anticancer agents from natural plant products. He has obtained evidence that a specific chemical found in green tea called EGCG inhibits activity of the insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1R), which plays a critical role in the development of colorectal cancer. In another related study, Dr. Weinstein discovered that two chemicals isolated from garlic, SAMC and DADS, inhibits growth and induces apoptosis (cell death) in colon cancer cells by binding to and disrupting the function of microtubules, thereby blocking cell division. These findings, which identify chemicals in green tea and garlic that inhibit the growth of cancer cells, suggest new approaches to the prevention and treatment of colorectal cancer. As a result of Dr. Weinstein's research, the National Cancer Institute has funded a randomized clinical trial at Columbia University to determine if an extract from green tea called Poly E might be useful in preventing the development of esophageal cancer in patients at increased risk for this disease. The findings from this study may be useful for the prevention and treatment of colon and other types of cancer.

Dr. Vogelstein is widely recognized for his discovery of the genes that, when altered, cause colon cancer. His most recent breakthrough was the identification of a gene, called P13KCA, which is mutated in a large fraction of colorectal cancers as well as in cancers of the breast, stomach, brain, liver and other organs. With EIF seed funding, Dr. Vogelstein has turned his attention to the challenge of using these genetic alterations to detect colorectal tumors before they become symptomatic. He was thereby able to develop a compendium of sophisticated methods to identify mutations in blood or stool samples from patients. Using these innovative techniques, Dr. Vogelstein's team can now detect over 60% of patients with early, surgically curable colorectal cancers and are even able to identify 50% of patients with pre-malignant polyps, years before the cancers arise.

Dr. C. Kent Osborne was born in 1946 in St. Louis, Missouri. He received his AB and MD degrees from the University of Missouri, both with honors. He completed his internship and residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1974, and then spent three years as a clinical associate at the Medicine Branch, Breast Cancer Section of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. In 1977 he took his first faculty position at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, where he rose to the rank of Professor and became Director of the Division of Medical Oncology in 1992. In 1999 Dr. Osborne and his team moved to Baylor College of Medicine to develop a new multidisciplinary Breast Center. Dr. Osborne is a physician as well as a research investigator. He has focused on breast cancer his entire career. His research interests include understanding the biology of breast cancer and then developing new treatment approaches for the disease. He has published extensively on the mechanisms by which hormonal therapies such as tamoxifen inhibit breast cancer growth and how breast cancers become resistant to these therapies. He has also studied the role of various growth factors in breast cancer development and progression, and more recently how these other growth factors can interact with estrogen to stimulate tumor growth. For more than a decade Dr. Osborne was Chairman of the Breast Cancer Committee for the Southwest Oncology Group, where he directed numerous nationwide clinical trials investigating new treatment strategies for breast cancer patients. He is currently the Principal Investigator of the Baylor Breast Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence grant, one of only nine such grants nationwide and the only one in Texas. He also directs a large program project grant from the National Cancer Institute, the goal of which is to identify the gene pathways important in breast cancer growth and then to block these pathways for therapeutic purposes. Among his previous awards are the Komen Foundation Award and the Brinker International Award for Breast Cancer Research. He recently received the European Institute of Oncology Annual Breast Cancer Award for 2004 and the Jacqueline Seroussi Award in Israel in 2005. In the Baylor College of Medicine, he is Professor of Medicine and Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Director of the Breast Center. He is also the Director of the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center that is under development at the College. He currently holds the Tina and Dudley Sharp Chair in Oncology at Baylor College of Medicine.

With EIF seed funding, Dr. Robert Mayer and his team at Harvard Medical School have focused on improving access and compliance for colorectal cancer screening through a program called "Open Doors to Health." The program is a randomized controlled trial being conducted in 12 low-income housings sites in the metropolitan Boston area with the goal of determining how best to increase colon cancer screening and prevention among diverse, low-income communities. Colonoscopic examinations are being offered at two major Boston medical centers. As of November, 2005, 1548 residents of the housing sites have been recruited. In addition, Dr. Mayer and his research group established a minority tumor bank, so that polyps and other biopsies can be stored and screened for comparative analysis among the different ethnic groups. These findings may determine whether colorectal cancer in one ethnic group is biologically identical to that in others.

Leroy Hood, M.D., Ph.D. is the founder of Homestead. He is co-founder and President of the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) in Seattle, Washington. Dr. Hood's research has focused on the study of molecular immunology, biotechnology, and genomics. Prior to his work at the ISB, Dr. Hood was the founder and Chairman of the cross-disciplinary Department of Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Washington. Dr. Hood began his professional career at Caltech where he and his colleagues pioneered four instruments the DNA gene sequencer and synthesizer, and the protein synthesizer and sequencer which comprise the technological foundation for contemporary molecular biology. Dr. Hood has also played a role in founding numerous biotechnology companies, including Amgen, Applied Biosystems, Systemix, Darwin and Rosetta. He has published more than 500 peer-reviewed papers, received 14 patents, and has co-authored textbooks in biochemistry, immunology, molecular biology, and genetics, and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Association of Arts and Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine.

Eric S. Lander, Ph.D., is a co-founder of Infinity. Dr. Lander has been a Professor and Associate Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1990 and a Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School since 2004. Dr. Lander has served as the founding Director of The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute, a biomedical research institute formed by MIT and Harvard University, since 2003 and as a member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research since 1989. From 1993 - 2003, Dr. Lander was the Director of the Whitehead/MIT Center for Genome Research. Dr. Lander received an A.B. in Mathematics from Princeton University and a D.Phil. in Mathematics from Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar.

Dr. Winer is Director of the Breast Oncology Center and Chief of Ambulatory Services at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He is also an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Co-Chair of the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) Breast Committee. Dr. Winer received his medical degree from Yale University School of Medicine and completed his residency in internal medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital where he served as Chief Resident. He completed a fellowship in hematology/oncology at Duke University Medical Center , where he subsequently remained on the faculty until 1997. Dr. Winer's clinical and research interests include the development of new agents and new chemotherapeutic regimens for women with breast cancer and he has conducted a wide range of clinical trials in women with early stage and advanced breast cancer. He has a particular interest in the treatment of her-2/neu positive breast cancer .He also has interests in the psychosocial aspects of breast cancer and health services research. Dr. Winer has published extensively in the medical literature and lectures throughout the United States and abroad.

With EIF seed funding, Dr. Sanford Markowitz's research at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, focused on genetic studies in families with multiple members who developed colon cancer during middle age. Dr. Markowitz and his team identified the chromosome on which these families carry an abnormal colon cancer susceptibility gene, and are now working towards identifying the gene itself. The identification of this gene will lead to the development of a test for inherited risk of colon cancer. In addition to genetic studies, Dr. Markowitz's made progress developing new diagnostic tests for colon cancer. His laboratory developed a molecular test for abnormal DNA molecules present in the feces of colon cancer patients which can detect half of early stage colon cancer patients. Lastly, in the area of colon cancer prevention, Dr. Markowitz discovered a "celebrex-like" gene that acts to impede colon cancer development. His findings suggest that increasing the activity of this gene can led to the prevention of colon cancer without deleterious side effects.

Dr. Larry Platt is a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and is the director of the Center for Fetal Medicine and Women's Ultrasound in Los Angeles. He is the current president of the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology (ISUOG). He has authored more than 270 peer-reviewed publications, 52 chapters in medical books, and has four books to his credit. He is the current commissioning editor of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology, the official journal of ISUOG. In addition, he is on the editorial board of several other prestigious medical journals. Dr. Platt has been elected to numerous prestigious professional organizations and has served in many leadership roles for such professional societies. He is a past president the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) and continues to serve on the organization's numerous committees. He also currently serves as the AIUM's administrative councilor to the World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology. He is past president of the Los Angeles OB-GYN Society and is the current and founding treasurer of the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Foundation. His research interests include ultrasound in prenatal diagnosis, 2-, 3-, and 4-dimensional ultrasound in obstetrics and gynecology, and the biophysical assessment of fetal condition. Dr. Platt is a sought-after speaker and has participated in more than 350 educational symposia. He has received numerous honors and awards and has been recognized in America's Best Doctors for the last 12 years. He serves on numerous community charitable and education organizations. He serves on the oversight committee for the Entertainment Industry Foundation Breast Cancer Biomarker Discovery Project. He is chairman of the Breast Ultrasound Foundation of the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography and is a member of the board of trustees for Touro College.

Dr. Martin Abeloff is the Eli Kennerly Marshall, Jr. Professor of Oncology, director of the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center, and oncologist-in-chief of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health Systems in Baltimore, Md. He is a medical oncologist whose major research focus has been the management of solid tumors, particularly those located in the breast or lung. He received his M.D. degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1966 and subsequently completed his residency training in internal medicine at the University of Chicago and the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. In addition, he received research training in hematology and oncology at the New England Medical Center and the NCI-Baltimore Cancer Research Center, respectively. In 1972, Dr. Abeloff joined the faculty at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where he served as director of Medical Oncology and head of the Medical Oncology Training Program. He currently holds academic appointments in the departments of Oncology and Medicine in the School of Medicine and the Department of Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Hygiene and Public Health.

Dr. Nancy E. Davidson, a medical oncologist, is the Breast Cancer Research Professor of Oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Director of the Breast Cancer Program at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. She also holds a joint appointment in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. At Johns Hopkins, she has integrated basic scientific investigation of the molecular and cellular biology of breast cancer with a nationally renowned clinical and translational program focused on new therapeutic approaches. Her most recent lab work examines the role of epigenetic regulation of the estrogen receptor gene in breast cancer. She has guided important national trials of new therapies for women with breast cancer including the use of chemoendocrine therapy for women with premenopausal breast cancer.

Parkash Gill, M.D. - Co-founder and Director - Professor of Medicine (Hematology, Oncology and Pathology) at University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. Dr. Gill is a leading expert in angiogenesis and its role in the progression of a number of prevalent diseases including cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration. Dr. Gill played a pivotal role in the development of three marketed drugs including Taxol and DaunoXome and served on the FDA BRM Advisory Committee for five years.

Dr. Peter Laird earned his B.S. and his M.S., Cum Laude, from the University of Leiden, The Netherlands. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam while working in the laboratory of Dr. Piet Borst. He received his postdoctoral training from Dr. Anton Berns at the Netherlands Cancer Institute and from Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch at the Whitehead Institute at MIT. He pioneered the use of mouse models to investigate the causal contribution of DNA methylation to cancer (Laird et al. 1995, Cell 81, 197), and invented two DNA methylation assays, COBRA (Xiong and Laird 1997, Nucleic Acids Res 25, 2532) and MethyLight (Eads et al. 2000, Nucleic Acids Res 28, E32), which has been issued a U.S. patent. Dr. Laird is currently associate professor of surgery and of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine, and is principal investigator on three NCI R01 grants. He is director of basic research for surgery, and program leader at the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. He serves on various editorial and scientific advisory boards and is co-founder of ORCA Biosciences, currently Epigenomics, AG.

With EIF seed funding, Dr. Raymond DuBois' research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center focused on developing better options for the prevention and early detection of colon cancer. To support this effort, Dr. Dubois and his team evaluated the role of prostaglandins such as PGE2, a signaling molecule produced by cancer cells in very high levels, and identified several new genes regulated by it. One of those genes is called NR4A2, which has been shown to be instrumental in controlling cancer cell death. Another newly identified gene called GROalpha was shown to inhibit colorectal tumor growth upon activation. These findings could be potentially important clinically because antibodies directed against these genes may be useful for the treatment of patients with colorectal cancer. According to Dr. Dubois, carrying out this kind of experiment is very high risk and would not be supported by other funding mechanisms. Thus, the support from EIF has been crucial.

With EIF seed funding, Dr. Walter Willet's research at Harvard School of Public Health focused in the area of colon cancer prevention. His findings strongly suggest that colon cancer is potentially preventable. Dr. Willet and his team set out to identify dietary and lifestyle variables that reduced the risk of colon cancer. This study was motivated by Asian and Latin American countries having lower rates of colon cancer as compared to the U.S. To accomplish this, Dr. Willet and his research group collected detailed information about diet, smoking intake, alcohol consumption, lifestyle factors, and family history of various cancers on over 200,000 women and 50,000 men, following them over time to see who developed cancer, in particular, colon cancer. As a result of this substantial data collection effort, Dr. Willett identified a series of diet and lifestyle changes that could have prevented 70% of colon cancer in this population. Increased levels of folic acids and vitamin-D are two of the most promising factors which could prevent colon cancer. Other factors include, being physically active and fit, avoid smoking, and reduce red meat consumption.