The University of Toronto (U of T) and the David Cornfield Melanoma Fund have jointly established the David Cornfield Melanoma Fund Award at U of T, with the purpose of supporting and advancing melanoma research. Under the direction and supervision of an advisory committee within the Faculty of Medicine, overseen by the Chair of the Department of Medicine, one annual award will be available to residents and fellows in the Department of Medicine, or a student in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, who has demonstrated special interest and research achievements in the field of melanoma.
Application Details
The application should include the following and be sent as PDFs via email to the Research Administrator at dom.research@utoronto.ca, by Monday, September 15, 2025. Please indicate "David Cornfield Melanoma Award" in the subject line.
a one page description of your research
a CV
a brief letter of support from your supervising faculty member(s)
Application deadline: September 15, 2025
Evaluation Criteria
Applicants must:
clearly identify their faculty supervisor
show a demonstrated special interest and research achievements in the field of melanoma
In the event that the advisory committee does not agree on an applicant in a given year, the award will be withheld until the following year’s submissions
Past Recipients
2017/18 - Dr. Thanashan Rajakulendran - Structural and functional analysis of the RAF oncogene
2017/18 - Dr. April Rose - Development of novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of metastatic melanoma
2018/19 - Dr. Anthony Mak - Targeting melanoma stem cells using an anti-CD133 human monoclonal antibody
2019/20 - Dr. Daniel Araujo - Safety and Efficacy of Infliximab for the Treatment of Immune-checkpoint Inhibitors induced Immune-Related
Toxicities
2020/21 - Dr. Paola Arteaga - BRAF testing timelines and impact on the starting of systemic treatment at a single tertiary cancer centre in Ontario, Canada
2022/23 - Dr. Sofia Genta - Prognostic and predictive value of circulating tumor DNA kinetics in high risk melanoma patients
2023/24 - Dr. Scott Strum - Interrogating circulating tumor DNA signatures of primary versus acquired resistance to immunotherapy resistance to immunotherapy in advanced cancer patients
2024/25 - Dr. Erick Saldanha - Simultaneous cell-free whole genome and epigenome sequencing to detect molecular residual disease in high-risk melanoma using liquid biopsy
