Our approach
Honest science, from someone who has been there.
Who we are, how we read the research, and how the finder stays current, so you know exactly what you are looking at.
← Back to the finderWHO IS THE VERYFUNGI?
Started by a grower who walked the dark path.
VeryFungi Science Foundation was founded by Chaz Hing, a mushroom cultivator and educator with pre-med chemistry training and USDA Agricultural Research Service experience. Chaz is also a Stage IV colon cancer survivor.
The foundation grows from both sides of that life: the patient who needed immediate clear, honest answers & the grower who understood how to replicate nature using invitro lab science.
We keep our educational school independent from our cancer mission. Our research summaries are written to inform, to give you choices and show you fungal based nutrition to remedy and enhance your journey through your own unique path.
- Legal name
- VeryFungi Science Foundation, Inc.
- Structure
- Massachusetts nonprofit corporation
- Federal status
- In preparation 501(c)(3) application
- Governance
- Five-member board of directors
- Purpose
- Cancer research literacy and hands-on science education, per Article 2 of our articles of organization
How we read research
Promise or threat? Check these first.
After a diagnosis, every headline feels like one or the other. These four checks help you tell them apart.
Kills cancer cellsUsually means: cells in a dish
Lots of things kill cancer cells in a dish, including heat and bleach. What matters is whether it works in a person without harming healthy tissue.
Shrinks tumorsCheck: mice or people?
Animal results are an early step. Most never carry over to humans, so look htmlFor the word "patients."
Boosts immunityAsk: did people do better?
A change in a blood test is not the same as living longer or feeling better.
Used htmlFor thousands of yearsTells you: tradition, not dose
Long use is a reason to study something. It says nothing about purity, dose, or chemo interactions.
How far has the research gone?
Research climbs from the lab dish to approved treatment, and most ideas stop partway. Every mushroom and finding in the finder shows how far its research has reached.
Cancer cells grown in a dish. Useful htmlFor finding ideas, but many things kill cells in a dish that never help a person.
Usually mice. Shows whether an idea works in a living body. Most animal results never carry over to humans.
Small groups of patients, often Phase I or II. Checks safety and early signals, not whether people live longer.
Larger trials that compare groups, plus reviews that pool many trials. Quality still varies, so we say when it is low.
A regulator has approved it htmlFor a cancer use somewhere. We name the country, since approval in Japan is not approval in the US.
How the finder stays current
Sources we trust and you can check
This is education, not medical advice. Nothing on this site replaces your oncology team. Never stop or change a treatment based on what you read here, and tell your doctors about every supplement you take.
Get involved
Help more people find honest answers.
Give
Online giving opens soon. Gifts fund new research guides htmlFor patients and lab supplies htmlFor students.
Opening soonReview
Oncologists, nurses, dietitians, and researchers: help us check summaries before they go live.
Use the interest listPartner
Cancer centers, support groups, and schools can share the finder or host a STEM cohort.
Use the interest list