The Carlo Grandori Foundation (FCG) brings to cancer research Carlo Grandori’s great insight: that the innovative use of existing technology has the power to shift the way we think about a problem, and to break through barriers that seem insurmountable. In 2011, when Carlo Grandori would have turned 100, five of his family members celebrated his legacy by founding the Carlo Grandori Foundation.

His daughter, Dr. Carla Grandori, is the founding Director of the FCG. While working in a pioneering biotech company in Seattle, she had access to a new robotic technology called High Throughput Screening (HTS). She realized she could adapt HTS to find highly effective and nontoxic, known compounds to treat cancer in an entirely new way.

Instead of the “dynamite” of conventional treatments such as chemotherapy — whose deadly poisons attack our bodies even as they attack cancer cells — we can use a precise and powerful tool that accomplishes the job with greater precision, and with much less risk. This new approach has enormous potential. It could provide a breakthrough in creating safe, effective, non-toxic treatments for cancers of many kinds. Eventually, it could enable us to take a specific patient and design an individualized therapy just for their cancer.

Unfortunately, few today can take advantage of this technology. It is expensive and the expertise to use it is rare. And the scientists who could do the most with it often have no access, and may not even be aware of its existence.

This is where our foundation will do its work. By financing the technology and providing the necessary resources, we will help bring this revolutionary approach to the forefront of cancer research.