100 percent of the proceeds from these elephant cookie sales went to the Huntsman Cancer Foundation to support the work of Joshua Schiffman, MD, a pediatric oncologist and cancer researcher at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah.
Dr. Schiffman and his team have been exploring a cancer-fighting elephant protein called p53, which helps protect elephants from developing cancer. Humans only have two copies of p53, and some children that get cancer only have one copy of p53 in their DNA. Since announcing the discovery of the elephant p53 protein, Dr. Schiffman and his research team have been working around the clock to bring the discovery to human trial.
“Our laboratory research team at Huntsman Cancer Institute is honored to receive this generous donation from Kneaders Bakery and Cafe,”says Dr. Schiffman. “This will directly support our efforts to understand the genetic basis of pediatric cancer, to create tools to better collect family history of cancer, and also, importantly, to continue our work studying the natural cancer resistance in elephants and how we can hopefully one day translate this to help our pediatric patients with cancer.”
Last year, Kneaders Bakery and Café was able to raise $145,000 for the research, and this year it was able to increase that to $218,800 for a grand total of over 360,000 in two years. “We are grateful to our loyal customers, our many friends, and our dedicated employees who supported this campaign in such a meaningful way,” says James Worthington, CEO of Kneaders Bakery and Cafe. “We want to help move critical research forward and bring hope to people of all ages fighting cancer.”
