Our Leukemia Mission

The French Family Foundation seeks to support medical research to discover a cure for patients stricken with Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) or Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) with a TP53 mutation.

MDS/AML with a TP53 mutation remains one of the most difficult to treat blood cancers despite many decades of research to find durable therapeutics.

Sarah French passed away from AML with a TP53 mutation at the age of 50 in 2022.

The French Family Foundation provides grants to institutions of higher learning and not-for-profits focused on research into hematological cancers. We attempt to remain solely focused on a single disease type: MDS/AML with a TP53 mutation, although we have made general grants towards MDS and AML research projects.

Our most significant focus to date has been partnering with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS), the largest non-profit funder of blood cancer research in the world. The French Family Foundation has equally split the cost of research project grants made by the LLS that focus specifically on MDS/AML with a TP53 mutation. This approach allows the foundation to support research projects that have been fully vetted by the LLS and its well-regarded research selection committee. In general, the LLS funds approximately 10% of the grant proposals it receives.