Established at Harvard Medical School (HMS) in 2019 by the Bertarelli Foundation, the Bertarelli Rare Cancer Initiative (BRCI) supports research projects and community building around rare cancers. It’s Co-Directors are George D. Demetri, MD and Marcia C. Haigis, Ph.D.
Initially established as the Bertarelli Rare Cancers Fund (BRCF), a first round of grants was awarded in 2020, to nine teams representing more than 19 lead and co-lead investigators across HMS and its affiliated hospitals. In 2024, the direction of the programme evolved and the BRCI began a new chapter to achieve a shared vision of creating a world-class, highly collaborative and impactful hub to drive research, education, training and advocacy focused on underserved rare cancers. The programme’s initial steps brought together extensive and vibrant clinical and research communities across Harvard Medical School. Importantly, the longer-term goal of the BRCI is to develop an international effort that will link clinicians, scientists, policy-makers and advocates around the world to improve the landscape of expert care for patients based on innovative research.
The BRCI now brings together a community of basic and translational scientists and clinical investigators with complementary skills to foster new directions and discoveries, with the aim of applying mechanism-based learnings to transform the understanding and clinical outcomes of rare cancers. Since these are exceptionally diverse, the programme is starting with a defined focus on a set of rare cancers which harbour cancer-causing fusions involving the EWSR1 gene.