The Beazley Foundation has donated $1 million to Eastern Virginia Medical School's new cancer research center. The center will be named in honor of long-time foundation board member Leroy T. Canoles Jr, and will be housed in the medical education and research building under construction on the EVMS campus.

The program will build on EVMS' work toward developing new cancer diagnostics, identifying biomarkers that indicate certain cancers and enhancing our understanding of other forms of the disease.

The Portsmouth-based foundation has a long history of supporting regional health-care initiatives, and its focus on community fits with EVMS' vision of becoming the most community-oriented medical school in the nation.

O. John Semmes, PhD, Anthem professor for cancer research and director of the newly named Leroy T. Canoles Jr. Cancer Research Center at EVMS, said gifts such as the foundation's are essential to the establishment of a world-class cancer center in Hampton Roads.

"The Beazley gift will be a critical jump-start to the growth of cancer research at EVMS," Dr. Semmes said. "We will use these funds to hire outstanding researchers and acquire critical resources needed for translational cancer research."