Dec 28, 2007 -- Hayley McDaid, PhD, assistant professor of medicine and of molecular pharmacology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, has received a $100,000 grant from Joan’s Legacy: The Joan Scarangello Foundation to Conquer Lung Cancer for her research of lung cancer. The grant, which is being funded equally over two years by Joan’s Legacy and the LUNGevity Foundation, will support Dr. McDaid’s efforts to better understand mechanisms of specific lung cancer genotypes that contribute to the onset of lung cancer and how they can be targeted for therapy. Dr. McDaid’s grant is part of $1.2 million in total funding that Joan’s Legacy is presenting to researchers at nationally recognized institutions during 2007, including grants made in collaboration with other research-focused lung cancer nonprofits, such as the LUNGevity Foundation. The purpose of the grants is to support innovative research projects focused on lung cancer, which, with 160,000 deaths per year, is the number one cancer killer in the United States. In studying the lung cancer genotypes, Dr. McDaid will focus on mutations in two proteins – B-RAF and K-RAS – to determine their response to targeted therapy. She has been a member of the Einstein faculty since 2001 and a member of the Albert Einstein Cancer Center since 2005, where she and her colleagues hold a patent for treating newly formed tumors using combination chemotherapy. Joan’s Legacy is named for Joan Scarangello, a writer and nonsmoker who died at age 47 after a valiant and nine-month fight with lung cancer. In just five years, Joan’s Legacy has funded over $3.6 million in new and cutting-edge lung cancer research. “In 2007, we received a record-breaking 65 proposals for funding,” said Joan’s Legacy President Mary Ann Tighe. “This overwhelming response demonstrates how funding availability can stimulate the scientific community to focus efforts on this often neglected disease with its resultingly low survival rates.”