Salk’s donor-funded innovation and collaboration grants bring risky but rewarding science out of the dark  Pancreatic cancer is among the deadliest cancers and is projected to be the deadliest by 2030. Of the nearly 70,000 patients diagnosed annually in the US, only 13 percent survive five years post-diagnosis. While the number of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer continues to rise each year, mortality rates have stayed the same. This is due in part to the minimal symptoms in the early stages of the disease, which hinder early diagnosis and give the cancer time to metastasize. These statistics weigh heavily on Salk cancer researcher Dannielle Engle, PhD.  Engle is constantly asking what drives the disease and how to stop it, with the aim of tackling pancreatic cancer and improving patient lives. But making a real change often means taking significant risks—risks that most funders are not willing to take.  “Working in a field with very poor patient outcomes, you want to chase transformative ideas. But there’s a constant pressure to stay safe and incremental in order to secure federal grants, which are continually more and more challenging to get,” says Engle.  The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary funder…