Honorees & Presenters (front, L to R) Wolf Hervé Fridman, Haruo Ohtani, Michael Kors,
Joan Allen, Alex Witt, Jérôme Galon; (back, L to R) Moncef Slaoui, Jill O’Donnell-Tormey, Donald J. Gogel, Robert D. Schreiber.. Photo by: Manuel Rodriguez, courtesy Cancer Research Institute

Last Wednesday, June 16, 2010, the Cancer Research Institute honored top American fashion designer Michael Kors with the Oliver R. Grace Award for Distinguished Service in Advancing Cancer Research. Three-time Academy Award nominee Joan Allen presented the Grace Award to Mr. Kors at a black-tie dinner held at The Mandarin Oriental in New York City. The award honored Mr. Kors' commitment to raising awareness and funds for cancer research causes. In his acceptance of the Grace Award, Kors stated that, “It’s really now up to all of us to contribute in whatever way we can, whether scientifically or financially; we are really all an essential part of this puzzle.”

Other honorees included GlaxoSmithKline chief executive officer Andrew Witty, and tumor immunologists Haruo Ohtani, Wolf Hervé Fridman, and Jérôme Galon. The dinner raised $721,000 for the Cancer Research Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing immune system based treatments for cancer. For more details on the event, go to http://www.cancerresearch.org/events/awards-dinner-2010/.