$50,000 Childhood Cancer Research Grant Awarded to Case Western Reserve University

CLEVELAND (November 20, 2014) – The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a volunteer-driven and donor-centered charity dedicated to raising money for childhood cancer research, is proud to award a one-year, $50,000 grant to the Case Western Reserve University. This grant is one of 40 infrastructure grants awarded as part of the Foundation’s fall grant cycle, totaling more than $2.5 million and surpassing last year’s total awarded during this same period.

Funding from the St. Baldrick’s Foundation will maintain pediatric and adolescent and young adult solid tumor cells inside a test model in order to closely mimic the condition experienced by these tumor cells inside the human body. This grant will support the critical personnel to shuttle precious tumor samples from the operating room at Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital to the research laboratory at Case Western Reserve University. Without dedicated resources to do so, these tumor samples are often discarded without the opportunity to study them in the context of the body.

“This grant will help us improve the next generation of immunotherapy for childhood and adolescent cancer patients,” said Alex Huang, M.D., associate professor of Pediatrics and Pathology at Case Western Reserve University, and a member of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. “With such limited funding for childhood and adolescent cancer research, we are very appreciative to the St. Baldrick’s Foundation for their support.”

This series of grants, combined with the more than $24.7 million awarded in July to fund cutting-edge research, brings the St. Baldrick’s Foundation’s funding total to more than $27.2 million awarded in 2014. Grants were awarded based on the need of the institution and its patients, anticipated results of the grant and local participation in St. Baldrick’s fundraising events and activities.

“These grants are critically important to saving children’s lives, and would not be possible without our dedicated volunteers and generous donors who believe kids deserve better than medicine is currently able to provide,” said Kathleen Ruddy, chief executive officer for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation.

To learn how you can get involved visit www.StBaldricks.org, and connect with St. Baldrick’s on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Vimeo.

About St. Baldrick’s Foundation
The St. Baldrick’s Foundation is a volunteer-driven charity committed to funding the most promising research to find cures for childhood cancers and give survivors long and healthy lives. St. Baldrick’s coordinates its signature head-shaving events worldwide where participants collect pledges to shave their heads in solidarity with kids with cancer, raising money to fund research. Since 2005, St. Baldrick’s has awarded more than $154 million to support lifesaving research, making the Foundation the largest private funder of childhood cancer research grants. St. Baldrick’s funds are granted to some of the most brilliant childhood cancer research experts in the world and to younger professionals who will be the experts of tomorrow. Funds awarded also enable hundreds of local institutions to participate in national pediatric cancer clinical trials, and the new International Scholar grants train researchers to work in developing countries. For more information about the St. Baldrick’s Foundation please call 1.888.899.BALD or visit www.StBaldricks.org.

About Case Comprehensive Cancer Center
Case Comprehensive Cancer Center is an NCI designated Comprehensive Cancer Center located at Case Western Reserve University. The center, which has been continuously funded since 1987, integrates the cancer research activities of the largest biomedical research and health care institutions in Ohio – Case Western Reserve, University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center and the Cleveland Clinic. NCI-designated cancer centers are characterized by scientific excellence and the capability to integrate a diversity of research approaches to focus on the problem of cancer. It is led by Stanton Gerson, MD, Asa and Patricia Shiverick- Jane Shiverick (Tripp) Professor of Hematological Oncology, director of the National Center for Regenerative Medicine, Case Western Reserve, and director of the Seidman Cancer Center at UH Case Medical Center. For more information about the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, visit http://cancer.case.edu/.

###