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Margaret Foti By Anne Harding Devoting her life to cancer research DUSTIN FENSTERMACHER / WONDERFUL MACHINE RELATED ARTICLES Successful Strategies The Launch and the Exit Entrepreneurs Boldly Break New Ground Mark Tykocinski: Open doors lead a scientist to his calling Shire Pharmaceuticals: A Study in Exponential Growth Many Happy Returns: Cephalon celebrates its 20th year Creative Collaboration When Margaret Foti became the first chief executive officer of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in 1982, the organization had a $1 million budget, published one journal, had 4,000 members, and sponsored a single annual meeting. Today, the AACR boasts a budget of $44 million, publishes six journals, has more than 27,000 members, and holds 25 scientific events every year. The association will soon launch a new journal, on cancer prevention, and plans to add more than 200 to its staff of 140 over the next several years. "I'm very proud to say we are the most prestigious cancer research organization in the world," says Foti. "Everyone looks to the AACR for a knowledge base in all aspects of cancer research, laboratory research, clinical research, and translational research." Despite its size, AACR runs efficiently. For every donation made to the association, 92% goes directly to cancer research, notes Foti. The organization is also known for obtaining grant money quickly. "To be honest, she deserves all the credit," says Susan Band Horwitz, a cancer researcher and distinguished university professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, who served as AACR's president in 2003. "The president changes every year, but Marge is always there." Only one other cancer organization is larger; it is in China and limited to Chinese scientists. Another one in Japan is older but open only to Japanese scientists, notes Geoff Wahl, a professor in the Gene Expression Laboratory at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif. "We're multinational ... people come from everywhere to go to AACR meetings, and [Foti] built that," he says. "She generates such credibility that she attracts the very best basic scientists and clinical translational researchers in the world, and they all want to participate in it." Foti is clearly proud of her stewardship of this venerable organization, which 11 physicians and scientists formed while meeting in the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC, a century ago. For decades the organization remained so small that it moved around, depending on where the current president was based. A few people were president more than once. The organization had moved to New York with Frederick Philips of Memorial Sloan Kettering when, in 1981, Philips became terminally ill with cancer. He recommended that Foti be named AACR's executive director. "They just moved the organization back here with me," says Foti. "It's been a wonderful opportunity to really dig in my heels and get something done." Foti's tenure with AACR dates back even before 1982. She became the managing editor of Cancer Research at just 24 years of age, replacing "a man who was twice my age and had twice my education," says Foti. Still working on her bachelor's degree in political science, she became "smitten" by biological sciences through her work on the journal, and so she began taking biology, chemistry, and physics classes. "She generates such credibility that she attracts the very best basic scientists and clinical translational researchers in the world, and they all want to participate in it." --GEOFF WAHL Foti's very first job was at the University of Pennsylvania, where she worked with a team using the Remington Rand UNIVAC. "I got hooked on being involved with academics because it is always so interesting; there's that curiosity about what makes things work," she says. "The discovery process in general is fascinating to me." Even better, cancer research "isn't just about discovering things, it's about helping people and saving lives." Wahl recalls e-mailing with Foti late into the night when he served as AACR's president from April 2006 to April 2007. "She's always networking with people to strengthen the connections, to understand what's going on elsewhere, and to try to develop ideas for better programs," says Wahl. He points to one such innovation, the Scientist-Survivor Program, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2008. Cancer survivors in the program interact with medical and basic scientists who may never have otherwise gotten the chance to see the human side of the cancer research story. Survivors have even met with the researchers responsible for developing the drugs that helped cure them. Foti has done her best to address cuts in National Institutes of Health research funding by having AACR help take up the slack. The effort included opening an AACR office in Washington, DC, to lobby legislators on funding scientific research. Philadelphia will remain the AACR's home, says Foti, who was born and raised in Philadelphia. "I have a great love for the city." Philadelphia has a number of advantages, she points out. It's strategically located between New York and Washington, DC; it's relatively inexpensive; and it's a "very robust city from a scientific standpoint." Raising the AACR's profile in Philadelphia is one of Foti's many future goals. "There's a lot happening in the region and a lot to be proud of," says Foti, pointing to the outstanding work at the University of Pennsylvania's programs in solid tumors, lymphoma and breast cancer; Children's Hospital's rapidly expanding program with a focus on translational research; Wistar Institute's work on vaccines; and Fox Chase Cancer Center, which holds a special place in Foti's heart. "My sister is alive after 10 years because of the outstanding treatment she received there as an ovarian cancer patient." Foti says the dedication of the cancer researchers she works with has been her greatest inspiration. "I just think that you can't not be affected by that. It's just an incredible thing to watch," she says. "It's a pleasure and an honor to be working with them."

Supplement: Margaret Foti

Jan 1, 2008

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