Happy new year to you and your families! I hope that 2023 has started well for you.

Before I delve into a preview of this month’s newsletter, I want to thank our entire community for the generosity shown to AIM in 2022 and especially over the month of December. Your support of our mission is appreciated, and I want to assure you that we use your funds wisely. In fact, I am proud to announce that we just earned a Four-Star Rating from Charity Navigator. This rating designates AIM at Melanoma as an official “Give with Confidence” charity due to our strong financial health, ongoing accountability, and transparency, and it indicates that our organization is using its donations effectively based on Charity Navigator’s criteria. This rating is in addition to our previous and current (2023) Platinum Seal of Transparency from Guidestar, indicating we have the highest level of transparency about our mission and financials.

Our focus for this month’s newsletter is research and treatment.

The first piece I want to direct you to is a compilation of our 2022 In Plain English articles written by Dr. Kim Margolin. These articles are one of the most read series of all we offer, and I understand why: Dr. Margolin takes the most recent melanoma research and treatment news and delivers it to you in easily understandable language. We’ve put last year’s articles in a magazine format for ease of reading. If you missed one or want to refer back to one, you can now easily access them.

Check out the article in our series called “Notes from the Lab,” by guest author Paul Bunk. Paul is a Ph.D. candidate at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory studying immunotherapy and has given us an in-depth look at Bispecific T-Cell Engagers, including how and why they work in uveal melanoma. For those of you who like to read about the science, this article is for you.

There is also an article about a very important aspect of the International Melanoma Tissue Bank Consortium (IMTBC): the Epidemiological Survey. Patients who give their tumor tissue to IMTBC take this survey, and the answers (depersonalized) are a treasure trove for research. Please read this article to understand more about how the tissue bank works and the type of research that can be performed with the survey’s information.

Related, I hope some of you were able to watch the webinar on Wednesday, January 25th, that featured Dr. Mohammed Kashani-Sabet and me in a conversation about IMTBC. If you didn’t see it, you can watch it anytime with this link.

We’ve also included a general update on the International Melanoma Tissue Bank Consortium (IMTBC), including an updated FAQ, based on an article we wrote last year. We are excited by the progress and eager to see more in 2023.

Thank you again for your support of AIM at Melanoma and all of our initiatives, especially IMTBC. Enjoy this month’s newsletter!

Alicia Rowell
Vice President
AIM at Melanoma Foundation

Your gift funds lifesaving research and provides information and support to people affected by melanoma. Whether you give a one-time donation, set up a recurring donation, or make a gift in honor or memory of a loved one, your donation can save lives.