SynCure Cancer Research Foundation is one of the philanthropic science endeavors begun by Dr. Robert A. Holton, a Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Florida State University (FSU) in Tallahassee, Florida.  Professor Holton is the inventor of a chemical synthesis method used to make the anticancer drug paclitaxel (taxol). Following this work, Dr. Holton and his lab at FSU have continued to apply the science of synthetic organic chemistry to the design of new chemical compounds for the possible treatment of cancer and other diseases.  Several of these new compounds have undergone extensive pre-clinical testing and two have entered clinical trials. Based on his own personal experience in cancer research, Professor Holton decided to begin SynCure.  There is a critical need to support the many excellent academic scientists and clinical researchers doing cancer research in order to move their discoveries more rapidly from the lab to the patient.  Too many people are dying daily from cancer (about 1,500 per day in the U.S.) while promising cancer treatments are held back by inadequate research support. There is also an important need to help educate cancer patients, their loved ones, cancer support groups and the general public about the many advances being made in preventing, early diagnosis and treatment of cancer.