Animal Cancer Center gets $3 million

A $3 million gift from the Shipley Foundation will allow the Animal Cancer Center at CSU to continue its groundbreaking research.

Dr. Rod Page, the center's director for the past three months, said the research center, which is part of the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, is "second to none in the world."

The gift from the foundation was 10 years in the making, said Dr. Steve Withrow, the founder of the Animal Cancer Center and its former director.

Three generations of the Shipley family have supported the cancer center. In 2000, Charles and Lucia Shipley gave $1 million to establish the Shipley Natural Healing Center, and their foundation also provided an additional $1.2 million to support its program.

"My parents were proud of their association with the Animal Cancer Center, and they were happy to support the research being conducted under our family's name by Dr. Elizabeth Ryan and others at the center," said Richard Shipley, Shipley Foundation president.

Charles Shipley died in 2004, and Lucia Shipley died earlier this year.

Withrow said donations such as the Shipley Foundation's gift are crucial to the cancer center's ability to do cutting-edge research.

"The only way for us to grow is to be creative," he said. "We can't rely on state funding. This kind of private-sector support is the only way you can survive, let alone thrive."

The donation from the Shipley Foundation will establish the fourth endowed chair for the cancer center. Having the endowment provides protected income for research, Page said.

A good example of that kind of research is a project Ryan is doing now in conjunction with the PVH Cancer Network. The BENEFIT, or Bean/Bran Enriching Nutritional Eating for Intestinal Health Trial, is a human clinical research study designed to help identify whether foods such as beans or rice bran will affect the microbes in the intestinal tract.

The study will potentially offer insights into the diets of both humans and pets, Page said.

Most of the research at the Animal Cancer Center provides benefit to both humans and pets.

Source: Coloradoan