$1 million offered for cancer 'ideas'

A group of New York investors will award $1 million a year to the person with the "best idea" in cancer research -- and the idea will be shared worldwide.

The "Gotham Prize" will encourage novel thinking and counter the competitive interests that can hinder progress, its creators said yesterday.

The first $1 million will be awarded next February. An advisory board that includes scientists from Harvard University, the Johns Hopkins University and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey will select the winners, who can use the money any way they choose.

"It's going to encourage people to talk to each other and collaborate," said Joseph R. Bertino, interim director of the cancer institute. "Well get out-of-the-box thinking."

Organizers say the award is unique in the world of medical research. They will pre-qualify members, who will post their ideas and concepts on a Web site, www.gothamprize.org. Other researchers and scientists viewing the site can build on the ideas, or perhaps assist or collaborate on individual projects.

"We're trying to encourage people to share their ideas. Even if four or five great ideas come out of this it will be worth it," said Gary Curhan, a medical researcher and physician at Harvard Medical School. He created the prize with hedge fund managers Joel Greenblatt and Robert Goldstein of the private investment firm Gotham Capital in New York.

One aim is for the Web site to help foundations and companies discover ideas that need funding -- and for scientists to find potential sources of money for their ideas.

Curhan said many good ideas do not get funded because researchers do not have enough preliminary data to attract government funding or because the ideas go against the grain.

Greenblatt said he and Goldstein, his partner, found similar ways to share ideas useful in the business world and thought the concept would work in medical research.

"Even people who don't win but post their ideas may get some funding or they may get collaborators to help them," Greenblatt said. The ideas can involve cancer prevention, causes, diagnosis or treatment.

Additional funding of the prize also came from Ephi Gildor of Axiom Investment Advisors and the Ira Sohn Conference Foundation, which was named after a 29-year-old Wall Street trader who died of cancer. The foundation also awards an annual $250,000 prize in pediatric oncology.

An inspiration of the prize was Hope Goldstein, Goldstein's mother, who died from ovarian cancer.

"We thought this was a good way to honor her," said Greenblatt.