Keith Pomeroy Kicks-off “Wolverines Against Prostate Cancer Challenge”

Arul Chinnaiyan and Keith Pomeroy. Chinnaiyan’s research team has discovered that fusion of genes causes prostate cancer to develop. Photo: Steffanie Fineman

A leadership gift of $100,000 from Keith Pomeroy of Birmingham, Michigan, is catalyzing a challenge posed by the Prostate Cancer Foundation, the world’s largest philanthropic source of research funding for prostate cancer. The foundation has challenged the Michigan Center for Translational Pathology to raise $1 million, which the foundation will match dollar-for-dollar to accelerate the search for a cure and better treatment.

Pomeroy, general partner with Pomeroy Investment Corporation, a privately held real estate and health care investment company, was diagnosed with prostate cancer, joining the “reluctant fraternity,” as he calls it, of more than 2 million men dealing with the disease. Treated at the U-M, Pomeroy has emerged as an energetic advocate of the work of Arul Chinnaiyan, M.D., Ph.D., who, along with his research team in 2003, found that two genes unique to prostate cancer fuse together and can be easily detected, resulting in a perfect target for cancer-killing therapies. With targeted therapy, physicians will be able to kill prostate cancer cells without damaging healthy cells. Chinnaiyan’s work also holds important implications for other common solid tumors, including cancer of the breast, lung, colon and skin.

The Prostate Cancer Foundation has awarded the U-M close to $5 million for prostate cancer research during the last decade. Pomeroy says that by stepping up its commitment through the Wolverine Challenge, the foundation is helping “accelerate the potential of [Chinnaiyan’s] transformational discovery.”

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