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INDIANAPOLIS (March 7, 2016) — The Catherine Peachey Fund has announced it will grant $75,000 to the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center to support the Amelia Project for the next five years. The fund supports breast-cancer research and programs. The Amelia Project will bring together scientists, cancer-research specialists and consumers to understand breast function and to enhance identification of breast-cancer risks.
The Amelia Project has been without funding for the past three years, but has been instrumental in breast-cancer research in the past. In its first 12 years, the Amelia Project initiated the founding and funding of what is now the Komen Tissue Bank at the Indiana University Simon Cancer Center, the only bio-repository of normal breast tissue of its kind in the world.
The Amelia Project will reactivate with its first meeting on March 12 at Indiana University-Kokomo in the Kresge Auditorium. Senior and junior scientists, clinical investigators, and students from six different Indiana universities and colleges will collaborate with consumers to work toward the eradication of breast cancer.
“There are several benefits of the Amelia Project, one being to create a better understanding of how the normal breast functions, which will help in identifying risk factor,” said Harikrishna Nakshatri, Marian J. Morrison Professor in Breast Cancer Research. “The normal breast tissue resource created for this purpose is the brainchild of The Catherine Peachey Fund.”
Connie Rufenbarger, director of project development, with the Catherine Peachey Fund said the public has “the power and the opportunity to impact research” by participating in the project.
“This can mean participating in clinical trials, lobbying for research dollars and access to medical treatments, or as in the case of the Peachey Fund, raising dollars to fund research or important opportunities like the Amelia Project,” Rufenbarger said.
