Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) is one of the world’s foremost cancer institutions, known for its paradigm-changing innovations in cancer care.

In 2022, the Foundation made a transformational $50 million gift to establish The Starr Foundation Program for Discovery Science, which funds ambitious, highly creative, foundational science investigations, as well as interdisciplinary collaborations that foster research with extraordinary potential across the field.

Starr Discovery Science supports three programs:

• MSK investigators with a proven track record who have a compelling research project that is above and beyond their current funding;
• postdoctoral fellows emerging as independent investigators; and
• grand challenge grants for collaborative high-risk, high-reward research involving a minimum of three labs.

The Maurice R. Greenberg Professorship supports an accomplished MSK scientist in computation, chemical biology, or structural biology or biophysics. In addition, The Starr Discovery Junior Endowed Chairs funds exceptional scientists and early-career investigators as they pursue innovative approaches in foundational science. Starr funding also invests in critical specialized technology and equipment, enabling researchers to explore technology-intense, basic research questions, and making these tools accessible for widespread MSK faculty use.

The Starr Foundation also helped upgrade and expand MSK’s surgical capacity in 2003 with a $25 million grant to build and equip 21 state-of-the-art operating rooms and six specialized suites designed for highly sophisticated techniques, including intraoperative MRIs, intraoperative radiation therapy for targeted hydro-radiation administration, and robotic surgery.

MSK is also a partner in the Starr Cancer Consortium and the Tri-Institutional Stem Cell Initiative, which have collectively received $350 million in Foundation grants.