Gran Fondo, MSU cycling event, helps further cancer research

Source: The State News, June 2017

Gran Fondo, an annual MSU cycling event, has raised more than $640,000 in its first four years for skin cancer research, as well as helping fund programs that focus on awareness and prevention.

The event, in its fifth year, was held June 24 in downtown Grand Rapids. The proceeds raised by the race go directly to MSU’s College of Human Medicine by allowing researchers to conduct studies that could lead to groundbreaking treatments for skin cancers like melanoma.

Jamie Bernard, who is also an assistant professor and recipient of a Gran Fondo grant, has been studying the direct relationship between how obesity increases one’s risk of skin cancer.