Grants Search Results

Based on progress to date, Dr. Volchenboum was awarded a new grant in 2012 to fund an additional two years of this Scholar award. Neuroblastoma strikes in many forms, some requiring little or no therapy, others deadly despite very aggressive treatment. Current tests that differentiate among these types can take weeks. Dr. Volchenboum is developing software to make real-time diagnosis possible, allowing therapy to be better tailored to the specific child. Once validated, these new technologies can be extended to other pediatric cancers.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Yustein was awarded a new grant in 2012 to fund an additional two years of this Scholar award. Many human malignancies have abnormal expression or activity of a protein called c-Myc, leading to genetic changes critical to tumor survival and growth. Dr. Yustein's research is on the role c-Myc plays in Ewings sarcomas, osteosarcomas and rhabdomyosarcomas.

This grant helps keep this young professional focused on childhood cancer by supporting exciting research, funded for 3 years or more.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Castellino was awarded a new grant in 2011 to fund an additional two years of this Scholar award. Medulloblastoma is the most common invasive brain tumor in children. Current treatments do not cure a lot of children and cause significant side effects. A better understanding of what causes this tumor to develop and to spread is needed in order to develop more effective therapies. A specific genetic alteration is frequently found in human medulloblastoma tumor samples which involves overexpression of a protein called WIP1, which is a negative regulator of cell death. Dr. Castellino's research on the inhibition of WIP1 may find a potential therapeutic approach to increase response to chemotherapy in medulloblastoma patients.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Huang was awarded a new grant in 2011 to fund an additional two years of this Scholar award. Pediatric patients with metastatic sarcomas (cancers of connective tissues, like bone or muscle, with cancer that has spread) have a low rate of cure. Recent evidence suggests that the immune system plays a critical role in tumor spread. Unfortunately, aggressive systemic chemotherapy used to treat pediatric sarcoma patients devastates the ability of immune system to harness the anti-tumor properties. Dr. Huang's research aims to incorporate the immunological arm of cancer therapy into standard therapeutic protocols, to provide life-saving treatments for children with osteosarcoma and rhabdomyosarcoma.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Pollard was awarded a new grant in 2012 to fund an additional two years of this Scholar award. Approximately 500 children are diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) each year, and 50% of these patients will not be cured. A drug has been identified as an innovative treatment for AML patients. This drug must attach to a particular protein found on the surface of most AML cancer cells, but not every patient's cells have this protein. Dr. Pollard is studying ways to improve the cure rate for these patients. Awarded at Seattle Children's Hospital and transferred to Maine Medical Center.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Asgharzadeh was awarded a new grant in 2011 to fund an additional two years of this Scholar award. Brain tumors are the most common solid tumor of pediatrics and are a leading cause of cancer related deaths. Dr. Asgharzadeh's research is to use gene expression profiling to try to identify which medulloblastoma (a type of brain tumor) patients can be cured without the need for radiation, thus avoiding long-term effects like mental retardation.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Choi was awarded a new grant in 2011 to fund an additional two years of this Scholar award. Stem cell transplants using bone marrow from matched donors (not embryonic stem cells) are the only hope for many childhood cancer patients. But graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a life-threatening complication many of these patients experience as a result of transplant. Dr. Choi's research is to find better treatment for GHVD, particularly one not using steroids which cause further complications.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Dovat was awarded a new grant in 2011 to fund an additional two years of this Scholar award. His research focuses on learning what leads to the transformation of a normal cell to a malignant one, specifically in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) - a type of leukemia that requires severe chemotherapy and has a low cure rate compared to other childhood cancers. He is focusing on how elevated activity of a particular enzyme in a particular protein (associated with a severe type of AML) affects normal cells to make them prone to becoming malignant. Results will help in the design of more specific and less toxic drugs for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. Dr. Dovat began his research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and moved to Pennsylvania State University in 2010.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Fish was awarded a new grant in 2011 to fund an additional two years of this Scholar award. Since over 75% of children with cancer can now be cured, the population of 250,000 survivors of childhood cancer in the USA is rapidly growing. Over 60% of survivors have a chronic medical problem, and 27% a severe or life-threatening problem as a result of their treatment. Research into problems faced by survivors is critical to improving their care. Dr. Fish investigates whether care in a specialized center will improve: 1) patient awareness of treatments they received and risks they face because of those treatments; and 2) the ability of survivors to follow medical recommendations and referrals.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Hermiston was awarded a new grant in 2011 to fund an additional two years of this Scholar award. Almost all patients who have relapsed leukemia or lymphoma will die. Dr. Hermiston's research is to find a way to predict which of these patients with T-cell malignancies are likely to relapse, so those children can be given the aggressive treatments they need upon diagnosis, and those not likely to relapse can avoid the long-term side effects of unnecessarily aggressive treatments.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Janeway was awarded a new grant in 2011 to fund an additional two years of this Scholar award. Osteosarcoma is the most common primary bone tumor in children, yet 80% of metastatic cases remain incurable. (Metastatic means it has "spread" beyond the primary site, in this case the bones.) No therapeutic advances have been made for two decades. Dr. Janeway's research is to find drugs that cause osteosarcoma to act more like normal bone than like cancer; find ways to halt the progression to metastatic osteosarcoma; and develop a useful testing ground for drugs to treat metastatic osteosarcoma.

Based on progress to date, Nina Kadan-Lottick, M.D., M.S.P.H., TeamBrent St. Baldrick's Scholar, was awarded a new grant in 2012 to fund an additional two years of this Scholar award. About 25-30% of survivors of childhood cancer will experience long-term impairment in cognitive abilities and emotional regulation. Dr. Kadan-Lottick's research is to identify the reasons for the considerable variation in outcomes among children who received identical therapy, possibly inherited factors that affect how chemotherapy is metabolized or that result in a general vulnerability to these outcomes. This grant is named for TeamBrent, created in 2005 to fight childhood cancer alongside then three-year-old Brent who was battling stage IV neuroblastoma; TeamBrent has since raised more than $3.5 million for childhood cancer research through the St. Baldrick's Foundation.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Keating was awarded a new grant in 2011 to fund an additional two years of this Scholar award. Brain tumors are the most common solid tumor of pediatrics and are a leading cause of cancer related deaths. Astrocytoma is a brain tumor that has no effective chemotherapies and the survival rates for high-grade astrocytoma remain well below 10%. Identification of new potential treatment targets is the goal of Dr. Keating's project.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Paz-Priel was awarded a new grant in 2011 to fund an additional two years of this Scholar award. Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) is the third leading cause of cancer related mortality in children. Only about half of the children with AML are cured with current approaches. Dr. Paz-Priel is working to identify how these cancer cells resist chemotherapy and survive, with the ultimate result of helping to find ways to cure these children.