St. Baldrick's Announces 2010 Summer Grants

Head-shaving is fun, but making over $12.8 million in grants for childhood cancer research is serious business! What does it take to do this? Time, expertise and the dedication of over 100 people!



To ensure that every dollar donated to the St. Baldrick's Foundation supports the best possible research, 16 experts from across the U.S. participated in the Foundation's first Research Priorities Summit in January. As a result, two new funding categories were added for 2010, making a total of six grant types now offered. (New: Summer Fellows and Supportive Care Research Grants. Continuing: Fellows, Scholars, Research Grants and Cooperative Research.)



Within days of the Summit, the application season opened with researchers submitting "letters of intent" online. In early February, 120 researchers were approved to submit full applications by the end of March.



Meanwhile, 65 pediatric oncology research experts agreed to review and rate the applications - all on volunteer time - led by Jeffrey Lipton, M.D., board member and chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee. Each application was reviewed and rated by three or more experts, using the same scoring system used by the National Cancer Institute.



Next, a committee for each grant type met to discuss and vote on funding recommendations. Finally, the Foundation's board of directors voted in early June to fund 47 new grants, confident that these are the projects that are most important to curing childhood cancer and giving survivors a better quality of life.



These 47 new researchers join the 29 who are continuing their work from previous year's grants. Whether funded or not, every applicant has seen their minimum three expert reviews, as this feedback can be helpful to their research or to future applications. The Foundation has the utmost respect for each of the 120 applications!



Please join us in tipping our hats to the 65 St. Baldrick's grant reviewers for spending over 1,000 hours, completing a total of 360 grant reviews, participating in 5 voting meetings, and volunteering their considerable expertise this Spring!



Photo Caption:



Dr. Jeffrey Lipton, M.D., Ph.D

Chairman of the St. Baldrick's Foundation's Scientific Advisory Task Force

Director of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation

Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children's Medical Center

President of The American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (ASPHO)