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Press Release

$943,528 Awarded to New York City Institutions to Help Fight Childhood Cancer


August 31, 2015
    • Press Release
    • For Immediate Release

 

  • Media Contact:
    • Traci Shirk
    • 626.792.8247 ext. 250
    • traci@stbaldricks.org

$943,528 Awarded to New York City Institutions to Help Fight Childhood Cancer

Part of $21.2 Million Awarded in New Grants by the St. Baldrick’s Foundation

NEW YORK (August 31, 2015) – The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a volunteer-powered and donor-centered charity dedicated to raising money for childhood cancer research, is proud to award a total of $943,528 in grants to New York area institutions to support research that is looking to find cures and better treatments for pediatric cancers.

A $330,000 St. Baldrick’s Scholar award was granted to Weill Cornell Medical College to support the work of Lisa Roth, M.D. With this grant, Dr. Roth is studying targeted therapy for the treatment of pediatric Burkitt lymphoma. She is working to see if tumor cells can be killed by attacking a protein called Hsp90 that is required for lymphoma growth. Roth believes that targeted therapies might be more effective and less toxic than chemotherapy.

Emily Bernstein, Ph.D., at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, was awarded $100,000 to study the effect of a particular mutation in neuroblastoma. Dr. Bernstein will take a genomics approach, the study and mapping of genomes, to understand how certain mutations promote neuroblastoma in order to discover new therapies for children with a particular mutation.

Hae-Ri Song, M.D., at New York University School of Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, was awarded a $100,000 St. Baldrick’s research grant to study how genes important in normal brain development are hijacked to cause brain cells to grow into aggressive brain tumors. Dr. Song is looking to learn why these tumors are resistant to treatment with the ultimate goal of developing more effective treatment. This grant was made with generous support from the McKenna Claire Foundation.

Two grants totaling $199,602 were awarded to Jonathan Posner, M.D., and Adolfo Ferrando, M.D., Ph.D., at Columbia University.

Dr. Posner’s “Grace for Good St. Baldrick’s Supportive Care Grant” aims to identify the changes that occur in the brain because of cancer treatment, by collecting brain images and data from survivors. This data is being compared with healthy controls across three academic medical centers: Columbia University Medical Center, Children’s Medical Center-Dallas and Seattle Children’s Hospital. This grant was named in honor of Grace Carey, 13, who fought a brain tumor and is now cancer free.

Dr. Ferrnado’s research aims to address fundamental questions on the role and mechanisms of genetic mutations associated with chemotherapy resistance.

Two grants totaling $213,926 were awarded to Dr. Kevin J. Curran, M.D., and Dr. Hans-Guido Wendel, M.D., at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Curran was awarded $115,000 to fund an additional year of his AVM Traders St. Baldrick’s Scholar award. Dr. Curran’s conducts clinical trials using genetically modified immune cells (CAR T cells) for children with recurrent leukemia thereby providing new treatment options for children who have failed standard therapy.

Dr. Wendel was awarded a grant for $98,926. His team recently discovered a new way to block the production of MYC, an abnormal gene in cancer cells, using a natural compound found in a plant. Dr. Wendel‘s lab is exploring ways to generate synthetic drugs using this plant. With the support from St. Baldrick’s, they are working to bring this new strategy to the clinic, with a heavy focus on pre-treated and relapsed childhood leukemia.

About St. Baldrick’s Foundation
The St. Baldrick’s Foundation is a volunteer-powered charity committed to funding the most promising research to find cures for childhood cancers and give survivors long and healthy lives. Since 2005, St. Baldrick’s has awarded more than $176 million to support lifesaving research, making the Foundation the largest private funder of childhood cancer research grants. For more information please call 1.888.899.BALD or visit www.StBaldricks.org.

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