Dr. Corson, whose research interests include ocular melanoma, will receive $10,000 from Indianapolis-based Outrun the Sun Inc., a nonprofit organization supporting skin cancer education and melanoma research.
“It’s a great honor to be named an Outrun the Sun National Melanoma Research Scholar, and humbling that I am the first ocular melanoma researcher to receive this prestigious award,” Dr. Corson said.
“This award will help fund our ongoing studies into blocking a signaling pathway that is hyperactive in ocular melanoma cells. We hope that we can eventually develop molecular therapies for this melanoma subtype that causes not only loss of vision but also deadly metastases in half of patients,” Dr. Corson said.
The research scholar program is designed to provide seed funding for investigators whose studies show great promise and demonstrate the potential to make substantial contributions to the field of melanoma research, said Anita J. Day, co-founder and executive director of Outrun the Sun.
“We are pleased to support Dr. Corson’s work and also to welcome a researcher from Indiana,” Day said.
Edward Cha, M.D., Ph.D., University of California-San Francisco, also was selected as a 2012 scholar. Drs. Corson and Cha join past recipients from Harvard University, Mayo Clinic, New York University, University of Chicago, Kimmel Cancer Center, Wake Forest University Medical Center and University of California-Irvine. Scholar applications are reviewed by the OTS Scientific Review Panel.
Dr. Corson will present his work at the annual Outrun the Sun Melanoma Research and Education Forum in Indianapolis in the fall.
“We are very grateful to Outrun the Sun for their support of Dr. Corson’s research here at home at the Glick Eye Institute in the Indiana University School of Medicine,” said Louis B. Cantor, chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at the Glick Eye Institute.