2025 Career Development Awards Announced 

UNIONDALE, NY, May 16, 2025 – The Lustgarten Foundation, in collaboration with the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), has announced the 2025 recipients of the Lustgarten Foundation-AACR Career Development Awards for Pancreatic Cancer Research, in honor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Robert Lewis. Grants were awarded to Anupriya Singhal, MD, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Vincent Bernard Pagan, MD, PhD, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The awards were presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2025 in Chicago, Illinois, and highlight Lustgarten’s ongoing commitment to advancing innovative research and creatively approaching the complexities of this devastating disease.

2025 Lustgarten Foundation-AACR Career Development Award for Pancreatic Cancer Research, in Honor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Recipient: Anupriya Singhal, MD, PhD, Clinical Instructor and Gastrointestinal Medical Oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
Project Title: “Interrogating vulnerabilities of a KRAS inhibitor-resistant cell state in pancreatic cancer”
Dr. Singhal’s research focuses on understanding how classical pancreatic cancer cells resist KRAS inhibitors. Her work aims to identify new drug targets within these resistant cells to develop more effective combination therapies.

2025 Lustgarten Foundation-AACR Career Development Award for Pancreatic Cancer Research, in Honor of John Robert Lewis
Recipient: Vincent Bernard Pagan, MD, PhD, Resident Physician in Radiation Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Project Title: “Targeting oncogenic metabolic adaptations to overcome therapy resistance in pancreatic cancer”
Dr. Pagan’s project investigates how combining radiation therapy with agents that trigger ferroptosis—a unique form of iron-dependent cell death—and KRAS inhibitors can overcome radioresistance in pancreatic cancer, potentially improving treatment outcomes.

“We are proud to support Dr. Singhal and Dr. Pagan through the Lustgarten Foundation-AACR Career Development Awards,” said Andrew Rakeman, PhD, Vice President of Research at the Lustgarten Foundation. “Their innovative work exemplifies the next generation of pancreatic cancer research—bold, collaborative, and deeply focused on improving outcomes for patients facing this incredibly challenging disease.”

The Lustgarten Foundation-AACR Career Development Awards support career advancement and the development of promising talent in pancreatic cancer research. Recipients are awarded a three-year, $300,000 grant for meritorious basic, translational, clinical, or population sciences research.