# Leon Black

Source: https://onco.cc/people/leon-black/  
OnCo record `leon-black` (Person). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

After his wife Debra's melanoma diagnosis in 2007 the couple founded the Melanoma Research Alliance, which has put more than $200 million into research while they pay its running costs so every donated dollar goes to science.

## Summary

Leon Black, co-founder of Apollo Global Management, and his wife Debra founded the Melanoma Research Alliance in 2007 after Debra was diagnosed with melanoma. MRA's own overview states that it has directly invested over $200 million through more than 500 grant awards, that MRA-funded researchers have contributed to 20 new FDA-approved melanoma treatments since its founding, and that because of the founders' ongoing support 100% of every donation goes to melanoma research, with administrative and fundraising costs covered by the Blacks. The years since 2007 saw melanoma go from a disease with almost no effective drugs for advanced cases to the proving ground for checkpoint immunotherapy and BRAF-targeted therapy; MRA funded young investigators and team science through that change.

## Fields

- Kind: Person
- Last checked: 2026-09-10
- Tags: hero; donor
- Role: Co-founder, with Debra Black, of the Melanoma Research Alliance
- Specialisms: Melanoma research funding; Philanthropy

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Black
- Melanoma Research Alliance: overview: https://www.curemelanoma.org/mra-overview/mra-overview

## Connected records

- cancers: [Melanoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/melanoma/)
- technologies: [Immune checkpoint inhibitors](https://onco.cc/technologies/checkpoint-inhibitor/)
- fronts: [Immunotherapy](https://onco.cc/fronts/immunotherapy/)
- institutions: [Melanoma Research Alliance](https://onco.cc/institutions/mra/)
- people: [Debra Black](https://onco.cc/people/debra-black/), [James P. Allison](https://onco.cc/people/james-allison/)
- bottlenecks: [Funding follows fashion, not burden](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-funding-allocation/), [The valley of death between lab and product](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-translational-valley/)

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