Organized by the O’Neill family, Boo!Run for Life is an annual 10K race and 2 mile walk designed to raise awareness and funding for renal cell cancer research.  Funds raised through the event support the O’Neill Fund at the Foundation for NIH. 

In 2009, Bill Rancic (winner of Donald Trump’s The Apprentice) shared emcee duties with Brian O’Neill. Bill’s wife, Giuliana Rancic (Anchor of E! News), her family and Bill’s family all participated in the event and plan on being back for the 2010 event.

The Dean R. O’Neill Renal Cell Cancer Research Fund supports a promising, postdoctoral cancer investigator who will work for two to three years in the laboratory of tumor immunology headed by Richard Childs, M.D., of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and will conduct research to further the quest to uncover more effective immunotherapies for the treatment for renal cell cancer.

In 2007, the first Dean R. O’Neill Fellow, Dr. Nanae Harashima, made an important discovery of a new tumor antigen in kidney cancer derived from an endogenous retrovirus, which serves as a target for immune cells that kill cancer. This discovery has contributed to a better understanding of the target antigens used by the immune system and has assisted investigators in designing more effective immunotherapy and transplant approaches to treat advanced renal cell cancer and other solid tumors.

Dr. Childs' laboratory also recently identified a novel gene derived from a human endogenous retrovirus (HERV) whose expression appears restricted to clear cell renal cell cancer. Importantly, more than 50 percent of kidney cancers express this gene, and peptide antigens derived from this HERV are immunogenic, eliciting a tumor specific T-cell response against kidney cancer.

To learn more about the race, visit Boo!Run for Life.

About Dean O’Neill

The fellowship, supported by the Dean R. O'Neill Renal Cell Cancer Research Fund, was instituted by his family and friends. Dean O’Neill lived in northern Virginia for over 20 years and was a well-respected financial executive in the government contracting industry.   Having been diagnosed with renal cancer. Mr. O’Neill actively confronted the challenge of this devastating disease. His own research led him to NIH and Dr. Childs’ laboratory, where he was treated with an experimental stem cell transplant from his brother Steve and participated in other clinical trials. Although the stem cell treatment was initially successful in shrinking his tumor, his disease eventually progressed and took his life in 2003, nearly 7 years after his initial diagnosis. By participating in Dr. Childs’ protocols, Mr. O’Neill made an important contribution to renal cell cancer research and to the education of others about the disease. His brave fight continues to provide valuable information to further the search for a cure.