Grants Search Results

Based on progress to date, Dr. Wasswa was awarded a new grant in 2018 to fund an additional year of this International Scholar grant. Whereas more than 80% of children with leukemia and lymphoma in the United States are cured with chemotherapy, in Africa a diagnosis with one of these diseases is an outright death sentence. To enable adaptation of chemotherapy protocols from the U.S. to treating children in Africa, Dr. Wasswa is studying the prevalent types of leukemia and lymphoma in children in Malawi and how their genetic code may affect response to chemotherapy.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Vasquez was awarded a new grant in 2017 to fund an additional year of this Fellow award. Dr. Vasquez, the Tap Cancer Out St. Baldrick's Fellow, is investigating the human immune system's response to pediatric brain tumors and how it can be manipulated in order to develop new treatments. Immune therapies can be highly specific for cancer cells because they target proteins only found on the cancer while sparing the normal cells. This research is using nanoparticles that contain the target protein as well as medications that block other cells that dampen the immune system in order to increase the immune system's ability to kill the cancer cells. This grant recognizes the partnership with Tap Cancer Out, a jiu-jitsu based 501(c)(3) nonprofit raising awareness and funds for cancer fighting organizations on behalf of the grappling community.

Medulloblastoma is the most aggressive brain tumor in children. Finding new therapies depends upon a better understanding of the biological mechanisms of medulloblastoma formation. As the recipient of the Hannah's Heroes St. Baldrick's Research Grant, Dr. Van Meir is evaluating the role of a tumor suppressor in medulloblastoma tumorigenesis. Understanding the role of this suppressor could lead to novel therapeutic prospects for children with medulloblastoma. This grant is named for the Hannah's Heroes Hero Fund created in honor of Hannah Meeson and pays tribute to her fight by raising awareness and funding for all childhood cancers.

Relapsed pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia is best treated by allogeneic stem cell transplant, including cord blood transplant. The significant number of children with persistent leukemia prior to transplant are at increased risk of post-transplant relapse and poor survival. As the Georgia and the Peachy Keens Hero Fund St. Baldrick's Fellow, Dr. Summers is working to prevent relapse by engineering cord blood donor T cells to target leukemia. The engineered T cells are infused following transplant to kill residual leukemia. This research aims to demonstrate that these cells are functional in eliminating leukemia. A portion of the grant was named for the Georgia and the Peachy Keens Hero Fund created in honor of Georgia Moore and celebrates the 5th year past her cancer diagnosis. As a leukemia survivor, she inspires others to "just keep swimming" in raising awareness, hope, and research dollars.

The most common childhood brain tumors are called gliomas. Despite advances in research, the prognosis for the aggressive pediatric gliomas remains poor. Dr. Song is studying how genes important in normal brain development are hijacked to cause brain cells to grow into a tumor and why these tumors are so resistant to treatment. This research aims to increase understanding of the biology of pediatric malignant gliomas and help develop new treatments that will ultimately improve outcome of these fatal tumors. This grant is made with generous support from the McKenna Claire Foundation, a St. Baldrick's partner established by the Wetzel family in memory of their daughter, McKenna. Their mission is to cure pediatric brain cancer by raising awareness, increasing community involvement and funding research.

Dr. Sondel has been using an immune-based therapy to treat children with cancer, and is seeing that it is clearly helping some patients. He recently found the presence of an antibody seems to predict which patients will do best with this treatment. This research aims to understand what this antibody is recognizing, and then to determine how it is helping the treatment to work better.

Ewing sarcoma is the second most common bone tumor in children and adolescents, and overall survival is dismal for patients with recurrent disease. Dr. Shelat recently identified an "Achilles’ heel" in this cancer, and showed that exploiting this weakness using a three drug cocktail cured the disease more than 80% of the time in models. This project is to validate this weakness as a marker for sensitivity to the drug cocktail in Ewing sarcoma and other pediatric cancers, and to find new drug combinations that better target this weakness.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Shah was awarded a new grant in 2017 to fund an additional year of this Fellow award. One challenge in caring for solid tumor patients is monitoring treatment response, as doctors currently use radiology studies that are unable to detect residual disease. Circulating tumor DNA is released by cancer cells into the patient’s bloodstream and carries tumor-specific mutations. Circulating tumor DNA could be used as a marker to measure tumor burden by a simple blood draw. Researchers recently developed a tool to measure circulating tumor DNA in lung cancer patients. Dr. Shah aims to design a similar tool for three common pediatric tumors. This additional grant is made with generous support from the Dorian J. Murray Foundation which was created in honor and in memory of Dorian 'Dstrong' Murray who passed away from Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma. The Foundation is committed to provide financial support to families of children fighting cancer, raise awareness and educate people and fund new and breakthrough research. A portion of Dr. Shah's fellow award was named for the Sweet Caroline Fund, a Hero Fund created to honor the memory of Caroline Richards who was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. This fund pays tribute to her giving spirit and her compassion for others by supporting osteosarcoma research to help kids with cancer.

Acute Myeloid Leukemia is an aggressive form of childhood cancer for which the therapy causes many side effects and the survival is 60%. Dr. Sakamoto's lab has found that a protein known as CREB is overproduced in AML cells and is associated with a worse prognosis. This research aims to study the protein RSK, which increases CREB activity in AML cells, and find ways to block RSK as a new approach to treat AML.

Burkitt lymphoma is an aggressive cancer that occurs in children. Treatment requires intensive chemotherapy, which can have significant side effects. Targeted therapies, which kill cancer cells but spare healthy cells, are urgently needed. As the Jack’s Pack – We Still Have His Back St. Baldrick’s Scholar, Dr. Roth is investigating a promising new drug that kills Burkitt lymphoma by attacking a protein that the tumor needs to survive. This drug may treat Burkitt lymphoma with less side effects than chemotherapy. This grant is named in memory of Jack Klein who bravely battled Burkitts Lymphoma. Love for this special boy inspired family and friends to rally around him as “Jack’s Pack” with their cry, “We Got Jack’s Back”.

The immune system not only fights infection, but can also fight cancer cells. Recently, doctors have been able to use patients' own immune cells to help treat their cancer. Sometimes, cancer cells can hide from the immune cells. Dr. Richman, the Ben's Green Drakkoman St. Baldrick’s Fellow, aims to learn how cancer cells hide from immune cells, and how to make these cancer-killing immune cells more specific to tumor cells to avoid harming the patient's normal tissues. This grant is named for the Ben's Green Drakkoman Fund, created to honor the memory of Ben Stowell who battled osteosarcoma with an inspiring determination to live life fully. The fund is named after a super hero Ben created named the Green Drakkoman who defeats his enemy, the Evil Alien.

Juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML) is a fatal childhood myeloid malignancy with limited therapeutic options. Relapse remains the main cause of treatment failure, most likely due to the persistence of leukemic stem cells, a small population of self-renewing precursor cells that are responsible for long-term maintenance of leukemia growth and drug resistance. This research tests for the therapeutic effects of Stat5 inhibition by pimozide, a clinically used antipsychotic drug, in a subtype of JMML caused by mutations in Ptpn11.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: Pediatric Blood & Marrow Transplant Consortium. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: the National Marrow Donor Program, Minneapolis, MN.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: Pediatric Blood & Marrow Transplant Consortium. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: the National Marrow Donor Program, Minneapolis, MN.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: Pediatric Blood & Marrow Transplant Consortium. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: the National Marrow Donor Program, Minneapolis, MN.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: Pediatric Blood & Marrow Transplant Consortium. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: the National Marrow Donor Program, Minneapolis, MN.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: Pediatric Blood & Marrow Transplant Consortium. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: the National Marrow Donor Program, Minneapolis, MN.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: Pediatric Blood & Marrow Transplant Consortium. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: the National Marrow Donor Program, Minneapolis, MN.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: Pediatric Blood & Marrow Transplant Consortium. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: the National Marrow Donor Program, Minneapolis, MN.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: Pediatric Blood & Marrow Transplant Consortium. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: the National Marrow Donor Program, Minneapolis, MN.