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Rogel Gift

In 2018, Richard and Susan Rogel committed $150 million to our cancer center. Their gift provides funding for seven programs that focus on:

  • improving treatment and care for cancer patients
  • helping to develop promising scientists
  • leveraging the university’s broad and deep strengths in science, innovation and patient care

The following programs are currently supported by the Rogels’ generous gift.

Scholars:

The Rogel Scholars program provides a support mechanism for exceptional faculty dedicated to achieving impact on cancer prevention, patient outcomes and quality of life.

Scholars, who represent the continuum of cancer research approaches and disciplines, will have the intellectual freedom to take risks and develop new and innovative approaches. Each scholar receives $50,000 per year for three years, with potential for two additional years of support. The program’s goals are to enable researchers to take creative approaches to generating new knowledge about the cancer problem, pointing us toward new ways to prevent, detect and treat cancer. As projects come to fruition, we hope this funding will serve as a stepping stone, enabling our faculty to generate the data needed to obtain external funding support.

Rogel Scholars in Cancer Health Equity

The Rogel Cancer Center has a long-standing commitment to reducing the burden of cancer in Michigan and more broadly in society, with particular attention to historically underserved/excluded populations. A key component of our strategy is to support leading scholars in cancer health equity who are addressing cancer health equity across the basic, translational/clinical and cancer control/population science research continuum.

2022 Rogel Scholars in Cancer Health Equity

Rogel Fellow

The Rogel Fellow program provides support for innovative and influential scientists, mentoring them and giving them the freedom necessary to build creative independent research programs and become the next generation of leaders in cancer research and treatment.

The current Rogel Fellow is Abhijit Parolia, Ph.D. He is an assistant professor of pathology, studying the role of chromatin in cancer and how its architecture may be exploited to develop new therapies.

Rogel Clinical Research Early Investigators

The Rogel Clinical Research Early Investigators awards provide career development support to junior faculty members who have demonstrated outstanding clinical research and a promising future in oncology. The awards help young clinical investigators establish their research programs.

2023 Clinical Research Early Investigator

Richard and Susan Rogel Professorships

Establishing professorships is an excellent way to ensure the cancer center's continued excellence for years to come. It honors and promotes faculty involved in exceptional and innovative research. The current professorships are:

Rogel Scholarships

Rogel Medical Student Scholarships support fourth-year medical students and Rogel Graduate Student Scholarships support M.D./Ph.D. or Ph.D. students during their dissertation phase of their graduate training. The scholarships are awarded to recognize the body of prior research accomplishments of each student along with the potential of each recipient for further major impact in a career in the cancer research field. The medical student award recipients are chosen via collaboration between the University of Michigan Medical School’s Office of Admissions and the Rogel Cancer Center.

2022 Medical Student Scholarships:

  • Holly Roberts
  • Cameron Harter
  • Abed Rahman Kawakibi

2022 Graduate Student Scholarships:

Rogel Innovation Teams

Innovation Teams funding supports Rogel members’ innovative research in high-priority areas, including purchasing state-of-the-art equipment and technologies, and supporting expert, transdisciplinary team members

More than $3 million in funding has been dedicated to these efforts:

  • Expanding quantitative data science capabilities
  • Launching an Immuno-Oncology Biomarkers initiative to identify biomarkers and enhance patient selection for immune checkpoint inhibitors
  • Purchasing a Vectra-Polaris imaging system to provide an exponential increase in acquired data and a third dimension to current analysis of the tumor microenvironment

Patient Support

The Rogel Cancer Center offers many important supportive services to our patients, many of which are not covered by insurance. Rogel Patient and Outreach Funds have been used to support genetic counseling, patient and family support services available to all Rogel cancer patients, and investment in community-wide efforts to address gaps in cancer screening.