Salk Assistant Professor Dannielle Engle was selected as the first recipient of the Lustgarten Foundation-AACR Career Development Award for Pancreatic Cancer Research in Honor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the late Supreme Court Justice and women’s rights pioneer.

Engle will receive $300,000 to fund her pancreatic cancer research, which is focused on understanding how we can intercept the signals causing pancreatic cancer to metastasize and become so deadly.

Each year, more than 45,000 Americans lose their lives to pancreatic cancer—now the third-leading cause of cancer-related deaths, with a five-year relative survival rate of 10 percent. Through these awards, the Lustgarten Foundation and the AACR seek to help close the gap in the number of early-career women and under-represented scientists applying for and receiving funding to conduct research leading to a better understanding and treatment of pancreatic cancer.