The scale of the unmet need is difficult to overstate. Myelodysplastic syndromes are diagnosed in approximately 10,000 to 15,000 people in the United States each year, a figure that experts believe may undercount the true burden because the disease can be difficult to recognize in its early stages. MDS arises when the blood-forming cells in the bone marrow malfunction, producing defective blood cells that crowd out healthy ones. Patients often suffer from anemia, infections, and bleeding complications, and the only potentially curative treatment for most patients, a stem cell transplant, carries substantial risks that many older patients cannot tolerate. Because the disease disproportionately affects people over the age of 65, its prevalence is expected to climb as populations age, making sustained research investment not just desirable but urgent.

What makes the SCOR model distinctive is its insistence on collaboration across institutional and disciplinary boundaries. Rather than funding a single laboratory to pursue a single hypothesis, each SCOR award brings together teams of leading investigators working across institutions and scientific disciplines, supporting multiple interconnected projects under one research program. The design reflects a hard-won lesson in modern biomedical science: complex diseases rarely yield to isolated approaches. A geneticist studying clonal hematopoiesis, an immunologist probing the bone marrow microenvironment, and a clinician testing novel therapeutic combinations may each hold a piece of the puzzle, but the pieces only fit together when the investigators are structurally encouraged to share data, reagents, and ideas. SCOR grants are built to make that integration the default rather than the exception, accelerating scientific discovery and helping move promising research closer to clinical application.

The financial architecture of the program is equally deliberate. Each SCOR award provides up to $5 million over five years, giving research teams the stability and long-term support needed to tackle complex scientific challenges that may take years to solve. In a research funding landscape dominated by short grant cycles of two to three years, five-year commitments allow scientists to pursue questions that require patience: longitudinal studies of disease progression, the development and validation of new disease models, and early-stage therapeutic concepts that are too speculative for conventional funding mechanisms. The program is designed to support collaborative research efforts that can generate new insights and ultimately improve outcomes for patients, a goal that both partner organizations describe as central to their missions.

Lore Gruenbaum, chief scientific officer for Blood Cancer United, framed the collaboration as more than a financial transaction. “MDS remains an area of significant unmet need, and progress depends on both scientific innovation and collaboration,” Gruenbaum said. “This collaboration brings together more than funding. It combines scientific expertise, deep knowledge of the challenges facing patients with MDS, and a shared commitment to accelerating progress. By working together, we can support research with the potential to deepen our understanding of the disease and help drive better outcomes for patients.” Her remarks underscore a strategic shift among major cancer philanthropies toward pooled funding models, in which organizations combine resources to support programs that neither could sustain alone at the same scale.

For the Edward P. Evans Foundation, the partnership represents a continuation of a singular focus. Founded in 1984, the foundation is a non-profit charitable trust dedicated to funding research on myelodysplastic syndromes through its EvansMDS Initiative, whose mission is to fuel the discovery of new knowledge that will lead to better MDS therapies and, ultimately, disease cures. Timothy Graubert, the foundation’s president, emphasized the importance of sustained investment in a disease that has historically attracted less attention and fewer research dollars than more prominent cancers. “We’re committed to supporting innovative, high-impact research that advances our understanding of MDS and moves us closer to better treatments and cures,” Graubert said. “We’re proud to collaborate with Blood Cancer United to support investigators pursuing discoveries that can improve outcomes for patients and families affected by this disease.”

The scientific stakes of this investment are considerable. Over the past two decades, researchers have made striking progress in mapping the genomic landscape of MDS, identifying recurrent mutations in genes that regulate splicing, DNA methylation, and other cellular processes. Yet translating that knowledge into therapies has proved frustratingly slow. Hypomethylating agents remain a mainstay of treatment decades after their introduction, and while newer targeted therapies and a class of drugs called luspatercept have offered meaningful gains for subsets of patients, resistance and relapse remain common. A coordinated, well-funded research program that connects basic discovery with translational science is precisely the kind of infrastructure that could help close the gap between genetic insight and clinical benefit, particularly for patients whose disease transforms into acute myeloid leukemia, an event that dramatically worsens prognosis.

The MDS-focused award is one of two SCOR funding opportunities currently accepting proposals, together representing up to $10 million in potential multi-year research investments focused on areas of significant unmet need across all blood cancers. The second award, funded solely by Blood Cancer United, will prioritize research into another area of high unmet need, such as T-cell lymphoma, myeloproliferative neoplasms, high-risk multiple myeloma, or childhood leukemia. These are diseases that, for different reasons, have resisted the therapeutic advances seen in other parts of oncology. T-cell lymphomas are rare and biologically heterogeneous, making clinical trials difficult to design and enroll. Myeloproliferative neoplasms, though often manageable for years, still lack treatments that fundamentally alter disease course. High-risk multiple myeloma and childhood leukemia each present distinct scientific and clinical challenges that demand sustained focus rather than episodic attention.

Blood Cancer United’s decision to concentrate resources on these persistent gaps reflects a broader philosophy about how philanthropy can best serve patients. The organization, which has been serving people with blood cancer since its founding in 1949, has invested more than $2 billion in clinical research over its history, funding that has contributed to dramatic improvements in survival rates across leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, myelodysplastic syndromes, and myeloproliferative neoplasms. Yet the organization’s leadership has been explicit that diseases affecting smaller patient populations require deliberate, sustained scientific focus, because market forces alone rarely incentivize the depth of research needed to transform outcomes for rare and underserved communities. By pairing its own resources with those of a foundation devoted exclusively to MDS, Blood Cancer United is betting that shared commitment, combined expertise, and patient-centered priorities can accomplish what fragmented, short-term funding cannot.

For the patients and families affected by myelodysplastic syndromes, the announcement carries a message that extends beyond the dollar figures. It signals that two major research funders view MDS as a solvable problem, one worth a five-year, deeply collaborative scientific campaign. Investigators interested in the SCOR program can find details about the funding opportunities through Blood Cancer United, and proposals are now being accepted for both the MDS-focused award and the second SCOR award covering other high-need areas. Whether this investment yields new therapeutic targets, better disease models, or improved ways to predict which patients will progress to leukemia, its most immediate effect may be cultural: a demonstration that in the fight against blood cancers, collaboration across institutions, disciplines, and organizations is not merely an ideal but a funded, operational strategy for accelerating discovery toward cures.

Subject of Research: A collaborative $5 million SCOR research grant to advance myelodysplastic syndromes research

Article Title: Blood Cancer United and Edward P. Evans Foundation collaboration advances research for patients with myelodysplastic syndromes

Article References: Blood Cancer United and Edward P. Evans Foundation collaboration advances research for patients with myelodysplastic syndromes. (n.d.). Original publication

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: myelodysplastic syndromes, MDS, Blood Cancer United, Edward P. Evans Foundation, SCOR grant, blood cancer research, acute myeloid leukemia, research funding, hematology, collaborative science, T-cell lymphoma, myeloproliferative neoplasms