In late 2019, José Baselga, MD, a renowned oncology researcher in Barcelona, Spain, began having trouble with his balance. It was particularly noticeable during a tennis match with his youngest son, Pepe. His difficulty with balance was soon followed by vision problems and short-term memory loss. After seeing various specialists, Dr. Baselga was diagnosed in 2021 with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare neurodegenerative disorder that affects coordination, thinking, and memory. Three months later, Dr. Baselga died.

Rather than flowers, his family encouraged friends, colleagues, and coworkers to contribute to a GoFundMe page that ultimately raised $242,000, which was donated to the hospital in Barcelona where Dr. Baselga was diagnosed.

Frustrated by the lack of research into Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Dr. Baselga’s family created the José Baselga Research Fund in 2021 to spark interest in studying prion diseases like Creutzfeldt-Jakob. The fund recently received a $1 million grant from AstraZeneca, the pharmaceutical company where Dr. Baselga was chief of oncology and helped develop trastuzumab (Enhertu), a HER2+ breast cancer drug.

The José Baselga Research Fund recently announced that it was offering a $75,000 grant to international researchers to pursue new advancements in the diagnosis and treatment of prion diseases. The deadline to apply is June 16. A scientific advisory committee will review applications and invite a select few to submit a more detailed application by September 29. The winning applicant will be notified on December 1. To learn more or apply for the grant, visit josebaselga.com.

“My dad devoted his life to discovering new therapies for cancer patients and we wanted to remember him by encouraging research activity in the area of prion diseases,” says Clara Baselga-Garriga, a second-year student at Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, MA, who plans to specialize in neurology. “There are many mysteries around neurologic conditions, so it feels right to focus on this specialty.”