Your support lights the way in our mission to change the future of human health.
Here's how you're making a difference at JAX.
$36.1M raised to support new discoveries
Message from President Lon R. Cardon, Ph.D., FMedSci
Dear Friends,
Think of the diseases that have touched your life and the lives of people you care about. A parent with Alzheimer's disease. A loved one diagnosed with cancer. A child suffering from a rare disease that few others understand, let alone know how to treat.
Now imagine a world in which we could treat those diseases by pinpointing the genes that cause them. Where discoveries at JAX, made with the help of your support, lead to more effective, less invasive treatments that are as individual as the patients themselves.
That is the world you are helping us create. Your generosity makes it possible for discoveries to happen faster, for new ideas to be explored in greater depth and for research to progress at a scale that makes scientific breakthroughs possible. I am truly grateful for your support.
I am pleased to share this update on the impact your gift has had at JAX. With your help, our scientists have advanced groundbreaking research on a range of health challenges. Our unique partnership with clinicians providing cancer care in Maine has changed patient experiences and outcomes for the better. And we have trained new generations of researchers who are just as passionate about providing hope and answers for those desperately in need of both.
I invite you to take pride in all we have accomplished together, and to join us as we look toward a bright and ambitious future. Your support has played a crucial role in bringing us to this incredible moment. Thank you for your trust, and for your partnership in helping us imagine a healthier world.
You help JAX scientists understand the genetics of cognitive decline
“We knew that if we could find a way to design an intervention for TrpC3, we could make a difference really fast. Philanthropy was 100 percent responsible for our progress. It funded the whole project, start-to-finish, and it inspired other gifts that have kept the research going.”Kristen M.S. O'Connell, Ph.D.
JAX Associate Professor and Alzheimer's researcher Kristen O'Connell, Ph.D., speaks to an audience in Farmington, Conn.
Together, we're changing the landscape of cancer research and treatment
Professor Ching Lau, Ph.D., M.D., envisions a world where his pediatric cancer patients receive targeted medicines with minimal side effects that give them the ability to dream big. Your generosity helps bring him closer to achieving that goal.
Leveraging JAX's partnerships with clinicians providing cancer care in Maine, the Maine Cancer Genomics Initiative (MCGI) has become a model for personalized cancer care in a rural setting. With the help of your support, MCGI is now serving as a model for cancer care delivery within the U.S. and across the globe.
Loyal donor spotlight: Robert P. “Bob” Adelman
“Every time JAX researchers learn something new, there's so much more they don't know and that they keep exploring. That's always intrigued me. I know of no other organization geared in that fashion.”
Do you know where you were in 1982?
It was the year Walt Disney World's EPCOT Center opened to the public and the Commodore 64 home computer landed in stores. It was also the year Robert P. “Bob” Adelman made his first gift to The Jackson Laboratory. Since then, he has given annually for 41 consecutive years.
Bob is a longtime friend and honorary trustee. He and his late first wife, Renee, were introduced to JAX during their summers in Maine where they had a seasonal home and attended weekend lectures at the Laboratory.
After Renee's passing from breast cancer in 1998, Bob established the Renee Adelman Cancer Research Fund in her honor. The fund supports postdoctoral candidates engaged in cancer research at JAX.
For Bob, JAX's mission to keep pursuing discoveries, even when the research generates more unanswered questions, moves him to give each year.
Whether you're moved by our research as Bob is, our educational programs, our scientific talent or all of the above, your reasons for choosing JAX are as unique and personal as you are — and we're grateful for all of them.
You're helping JAX answer big questions that will help our smallest patients
What if rare diseases could be more rapidly diagnosed, and new treatments made available to more patients? Only JAX has the tools and expertise to make that future a reality, and your support is helping us realize it.
Scientists at the JAX Rare Disease Translational Center (RDTC) want to provide hope and help for our smallest patients. Approximately 50%‐75% of patients with rare diseases are children. The average time from symptom onset to diagnosis is more than six years, yet 30% of patients do not live long enough to see their fifth birthday. You are helping researchers at the RDTC change the odds for those for whom time is most precious.
The Summer Student Program keeps changing lives
100 years
3,000+ alumni
3 Nobel Prize winners
2023 Class
39 graduates
54% met NIH diversity criteria
31 colleges represented
4 high schools represented
Your support enables up‐and‐coming scientists to experience a summer at JAX through the Summer Student Program (SSP), which brings bright, talented and curious young adults into the scientific career pipeline by offering hands‐on participation in research discovery. The program offers a powerful first glimpse of what a career in science can look like.
Here, two alumni share the impact of the SSP on the trajectory of their lives.
“I would want you to know that your gift is an investment in the future. It allows people like me to access an experience we wouldn't have had otherwise.”Erika Estrada SSP '14
Erika Estrada SSP'14, pictured at the University of California, Davis.
‘My journey may take more turns, but I'll still get there.’
During Erika Estrada's first weeks in the Summer Student Program, she wasn't sure she fit in. She came from a community college and had only recently learned English after emigrating to the U.S. from Mexico at age 17, alone. In contrast, many of her classmates were children of doctors and scientists. Some had even already shadowed a mentor.
But as she grew into a routine of living and working with her JAX classmates, she felt those differences fall away and found they all had more in common than not. She realized how much they could learn from each other. The immersive quality of the SSP — made possible in large part through gifts like yours — created an environment ideal for lifelong connections.
Through a summer of camping trips, whitewater rafting, after-dinner hikes and rounds of ping-pong with friends as passionate about science as she was, Erika at long last found what she'd been searching for — a sense of belonging.
Your support has made a difference not only for Erika, but for the many students like her who find their way to JAX despite having fewer advantages and resources.
“The Summer Student Program made such a difference in my life. For any young scientists out there, who feel inclined to pursue this field, I'd love to have helped facilitate their first step.”Dr. Susan Collins Black SSP '62
Dr. Susan Collins Black SSP '62, pictured in the late 1990s, delivers a breech baby at Christiana Hospital in Wilmington, DE.
A reunion and an inspiration to give back
During the summer of 2022, the SSP Class of 1962 reunited at Highseas to celebrate a remarkable six decades since their graduation. Though their faces had changed with time, Dr. Susan Collins Black found their shared appreciation for the SSP experience remained as strong as ever.
“We had common emotions about how that summer shaped us,” Susan said. “We gained confidence in ourselves. It was the first time we truly felt we could do what we wanted in the world. Looking back, we all recognized that moment as the summer we grew up.”
In recognition of JAX's role in solidifying her medical career and enabling her to provide for her family, Susan chose to join our generous community of donors like you. She established an endowment to support a special living-learning community for high school students wishing to participate in the SSP.
Thanks to you, JAX is home to diverse scientific talent
Your support ensures that scientists and researchers from all backgrounds and experiences benefit from JAX's world-class resources. See how you're helping to build diversity in the sciences through the Postbaccalaureate Training at JAX program.
“I genuinely appreciate the never-ending ‘why‘ and forever-learning that comes with science.”DeAnna James, Postbaccalaureate Fellow
Visiting researchers from Morgan State University join Professor Elissa Chesler, Ph.D. to participate in a JAX program that supports a diverse community of academics in their pursuit of addiction-related education, research and careers.
You're advancing JAX's mission through the President's Fund
By supporting the President's Fund, many donors like you generously allow JAX to deploy resources where they are needed most.
Here are a few ways in which you've made a difference.
You're helping our researchers find more effective ways to address addiction behaviors.
At a time when humans are living longer than ever, you are accelerating research around the science of aging and the potential of genetics in helping us stay healthier for longer.
You are helping scientists like Elise Courtois, Ph.D., a recipient of the Women in Innovation award, find solutions for the complex challenge of endometriosis.
Every scientific breakthrough at JAX is not only the result of decades of work by determined scientists, but also the outcome of collaboration — the vital component that nurtures discovery. Planned gifts make those collaborations possible, putting our scientists on the cutting edge of research into the great health challenges yet to come.
$2.3M in planned gifts in 2023 to advance JAX's mission
$30.1M in planned gifts confirmed in the last decade to shape JAX's future
108 members for Society for Discovery, JAX's exclusive community of planned giving donors
Thank you for propelling the discoveries of the future.
