How the Alberta Cancer Foundation is rethinking philanthropy
By: Karin Olafson
Taking research from bench to bedside, where patients can truly benefit, isn’t easy. That’s why Christy Holtby, vice president of philanthropy at the Alberta Cancer Foundation, began looking into new ways to help support incredible made-in-Alberta cancer solutions. And that’s where the novel world of venture philanthropy comes in.
“Venture philanthropy is harnessing the instincts of the private sector to advance research ideas to commercial markets,” explains Holtby. Donors draw on their investor instincts to select what innovations to fund, without expecting a financial reward like an angel investor would. Any support is still a charitable donation.
“It’s tricky for startups in the life sciences space to get funding. They hit something called the ‘valley of death,’” Holtby says, explaining that granting agencies fund early development and other essential funding comes later in the development process, leaving some pre-commercial ideas behind. Once research hits that pre-commercial point, it’s often the end of the road for these innovations. “We believe that we can play a role in bridging that gap.”
Holtby reached out to Cory Janssen, co-founder of the Edmonton-based AI software company AltaML, for his business and venture capital expertise. He got on board immediately as the Breakthrough Fund Chair.
SickKids Foundation is a leader in venture philanthropy in Canada, and the Alberta Cancer Foundation talked with them about this fundraising approach. SickKids Foundation has a fund for researchers called the Breakthrough Fund that uses venture philanthropy to support breakthrough research in the pre-commercial phase to help bring it to market.
“SickKids Foundation shared their playbook with us,” says Janssen. “We took what we learned from there as a base for something that works in cancer and for Alberta.” The Alberta Cancer Foundation named its own new venture philanthropy fund the Breakthrough Fund, paying tribute to SickKids Foundation’s model and because that collaboration was what brought it into being.
The Foundation has a Breakthrough Fund for Edmonton and another for Calgary. After raising money for the fund earlier in the year, the inaugural Breakthrough Fund launched in Edmonton, and, on Dec. 6, 2023, donors gathered at the pitch event to hear researchers showcase and pitch their work.
“I was really inspired by the energy in the room,” says Janssen, who now chairs the Breakthrough Fund. He adds, “This fundraising model gives donors agency over where their dollars go and it builds relationships. I think the next cohort of donors is looking at philanthropy and fundraising events differently.”
For cancer patients, this new fundraising model provides hope by preventing incredible local research from falling through the funding cracks. And, for researchers, it provides more resources and opportunities to see their work benefit the public.
What is the Breakthrough Fund?
The Breakthrough Fund is a new way of fundraising for the Alberta Cancer Foundation. Combining the startup and venture capitalist worlds with the health-care and philanthropy worlds, donors use their entrepreneurial expertise to ask researchers questions about their projects and determine which projects they feel would have the greatest impact. In a pitch competition, fund applicants demonstrate how their research has commercial potential and how it will provide real-world solutions to cancer. Donors then vote on who should be awarded $100,000. The first vote event took place in Edmonton on Dec. 6, 2023, and the first vote event in Calgary is expected to take place this summer.
The inaugural Breakthrough Fund winners
Entos Pharmaceuticals
About the funded project: This Edmonton-based company will work with Dr. John Lewis’s lab group at the University of Alberta to develop personalized cancer vaccines. The vaccine will use Entos’s proprietary Fusogenix proteolipid vehicle (PLV) drug delivery system, which supports the delivery of mRNA or DNA into cells. The Breakthrough Fund will support the clinical trials and commercial scaling of these cancer vaccines.
Dr. Frank Wuest, professor and chair of the department of oncology at the University of Alberta
About the funded project: Positron emission tomography, or PET, is a type of functional molecular imaging that uses injectable radioactive substances to help physicians make diagnostic and treatment decisions. Winning this fund will allow Wuest to work with 48Hour Discovery, an Edmonton-based company, on the development of a radiopeptide to improve PET imaging of a specific protein — known as PD-L1 — in cancer patients. Typically, PD-L1 is found on some healthy cells, stopping T cells (part of the immune system) from fighting healthy cells in the body. In a cancer patient, though, high levels of PD-L1 can stop T cells from fighting cancer. If physicians know a cancer patient has high levels of PD-L1, immunotherapy could be used to inhibit this protein’s action, allowing the T cells to fight the cancer cells. However, accurate testing is needed to determine if a patient would benefit from immunotherapy. This project will better predict and monitor a patient’s immunotherapy response.
Funding team approaches to solving problems
According to Christy Holtby, the new Game Changer Competition is an innovative approach to how dollars are deployed. The Game Changer Competition supports a team-based approach or platform to solving a patient problem through a new, game-changing idea, be it a drug, a bedside innovation or just a fresh way of doing things. A national peer review committee evaluates the submissions — putting Alberta research on a national platform — and selects the winner.
Currently, each winner will be given up to $1.25 million. The first Game Changer Competition took place in Edmonton on Feb. 5 and there are plans to bring it to Calgary soon.
The inaugural Game Changer Fund winners
Dr. Vickie Baracos’s Game Changer team: This team will advance the understanding of cachexia (a progressive loss of weight, fat and muscle often experienced by those diagnosed with advanced cancers) and its effects on patients by using novel imaging, data and more to customize treatment.
Dr. Ing Swie Goping’s Game Changer team: This team will establish a multi-dimensional platform to begin to predict how breast cancer patients will respond to treatment.
Dr. Roseline Godbout’s Game Changer team: This team will use the Game Changer Fund to find novel approaches to diagnosing and treating metastatic prostate cancer.
Dr. Kristi Baker’s Game Changer team: This team will bring an innovative imaging platform to the University of Alberta in order to research tumour immune response; better understand why the immune system has difficulty fighting late-stage, genetically unstable cancers; develop novel therapeutic approaches; and discover new biomarkers
