Gayle and Carl Tallardy III

Pioneering the Next Era in Personalized Medicine

FAMILY FOUNDATION ENDOWS LEVINE CANCER INSTITUTE

Anew era in personalized therapies for cancer is being ushered in with support from generous community benefactors. A lead gift of $1 million from Gayle and Charles “Carl” Tallardy III has established the Gayle J. and Charles C. Tallardy III Foundation Distinguished Chair in Clinical Research Endowment at Levine Cancer Institute. David M. Foureau, PhD – associate professor of medicine and research group director of LCI’s Immune Monitoring Core Laboratory – is the first recipient of this chairmanship.

“We look at this gift and the establishment of our endowment as the beginning of a long relationship with Levine Cancer Institute,” shares Carl, pictured with his wife Gayle (above).

The Gayle J. and Charles C. Tallardy III Foundation Distinguished Chair in Clinical Research Endowment will help advance medical research leading to earlier detection, novel therapies, improved outcomes, and curative treatments for cancer.

“Transformational gifts such as these help position us among the best health systems in the country,” said Derek Raghavan, MD, PhD, president of Levine Cancer Institute. “We are grateful to the Tallardy family for their generosity and for their commitment to advancing next generation medicine.”

A native of Davidson, North Carolina, Gayle’s lifelong interest in science and her family’s experiences with cancer make the establishment of the endowment especially meaningful. After relocating to the South from upstate New York for the first time in their 42-year marriage, Gayle and Carl established their family foundation in 2021 and soon recognized the opportunity to meaningfully impact the trajectory of cancer research in their new home.

David M. Foureau, PhD

“Having received care at Levine Cancer Institute for Carl’s own experience with cancer, we are honored to stand behind LCI’s commitment to research, allowing clinicians to move beyond simply treating patients to developing lifesaving cures,” shared Gayle.

Since the recent passing of Gayle’s late father, Dr. Claude Hardison McConnell, who battled melanoma, the Tallardys were moved to support immunotherapy in particular – an area of research that shows great promise in treating melanoma and other aggressive forms of cancer. After touring the translational research laboratory at LCI, Gayle saw an opportunity to help LCI’s researchers change the face of melanoma treatment for generations to come. “The research presented by Dr. Amin and Dr. Foureau was nothing less than cutting-edge,” commented Gayle.

“Over the past 15 years we have witnessed the immunotherapy revolution, marked by the continuous discovery of new ways to harness the immune system to fight cancer, such as weaponizing our own blood cells with gene therapy technology. This generous donation by Gayle and Carl Tallardy will have a very significant impact on the Levine Cancer Institute immuno-oncology research program,” commented Dr. Foureau.

Immunotherapy, a form

of biological therapy that uses a person’s own immune system to fight cancer, allows researchers to create personalized therapies to better target the disease. Discoveries made in immunotherapy clinical trials for melanoma help to advance the broader body of knowledge around how this form of therapy can impact different forms of cancer.

Promising medical discoveries in immunotherapy are being made for several cancer types including:

• Melanoma • Sarcoma • Breast cancer • Colorectal cancer • Multiple myeloma • Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma