Grand MMTI – The Grand Gift
Stephen Grand had no idea how close to home cancer would strike when he and his wife, Nancy, began supporting cancer–related research at UCSF in 2003. They certainly felt it was a worthy cause, but one that would be beneficial to someone else’s husband or wife, mother or father.
Stephen and Nancy GrandAn avid cyclist, Grand had recently finished a 100–mile one–day ride down the coast of California. Three months later, “Boom … I discovered I had an advanced case of a cancer I had never even heard of. It was unbelievable. I never imagined it would happen to me,” he says.
After Grand was diagnosed with a rare version of multiple myeloma, he joined the board of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF), an organization focused on funding research, improving the process of drug development, and selecting the most promising projects to support in the search for new treatments. A collaboration between the MMRF and UCSF soon followed, and thanks to a $5 million gift from the Grands, the Stephen and Nancy Grand Multiple Myeloma Translational Initiative (Grand MMTI) at UCSF was established. The Grand MMTI includes basic, translational and clinical scientists dedicated to the rapid discovery, development and delivery of novel therapeutics for multiple myeloma patients.
As a result of Stephen and Nancy’s initial investment and their ongoing commitment to the program and its vision, the Grand MMTI grew from a practice of two clinicians and 75 myeloma patients in 2009 to become today the West Coast’s leading myeloma translational program with eight clinicians and over 2,000 active patients. It has a robust clinical trials program, a myeloma tissue bank, a dedicated myeloma translational laboratory, and active fundamental research that has led to novel products entering clinical testing.