research grant

See St. Baldrick’s events near Raleigh, North Carolina.

Since 2004, the Triangle area St. Baldrick’s head-shaving events have raised over $6.8 million for childhood cancer research!

More than 52 Raleigh-area events took place in 2013, in honor of local children with cancer, survivors, and those who have passed away.

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Your donation to St. Baldrick’s supports pediatric cancer research. Donate now.

There are things we can do that will increase our risk for cancer later in life, like tanning and smoking cigarettes. But childhood cancer is a different story.

Pediatric cancers are caused by genetic mutations. “However, since these mutations are unique to pediatric cancer, unique drugs need to be developed to treat these cancers,” explains Patrick Grohar, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatric hematology-oncology at Vanderbilt University and a St. Baldrick’s research grant recipient.

Dr. Grohar is working to develop new drugs that target one particular mutation found in Ewing sarcoma tumors, ultimately yielding more effective and less toxic treatments for this form of childhood cancer.

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The St. Baldrick’s Foundation is proud to award a total of $215,000 in pediatric oncology research grants to support the work of two physician-researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Linda Holmfeldt, Ph.D., received a $100,000 St. Baldrick’s Research Grant to support her project focused on hypodiploid acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Patients with this subtype of leukemia, in which the leukemic cells have lost multiple chromosomes, have a much lower chance of survival. Dr. Holmfeldt and her team have identified multiple gene mutations that are believed to be responsible for allowing the cancer to grow.

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Taosheng Chen, Ph.D., a St. Baldrick’s Research Grant recipient at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, has made noteworthy progress in his research that resulted in three scholarly journal publications. He is investigating the genetic mechanisms of alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (aRMS), an aggressive soft-tissue cancer that primarily affects adolescents and young adults.

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This October, the McKenna Claire Foundation will celebrate its second anniversary. “Celebrate” doesn’t quite seem like the appropriate word, as starting a foundation to honor your deceased child isn’t typically on anyone’s list of things they wish to achieve during their lifetime.

We knew from the beginning that with a diagnosis of Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), the prognosis for McKenna was dismal. We promised her that we would do everything within our power to help her “feel better.” Because we had amazing friends who had turned over every rock and researched every DIPG doctor and research facility in the world, we knew we had done our very best for our daughter, but that modern medicine had failed us. Not for lack of caring or lack of heart amongst the doctors, but for lack of funding which limited research and the possibility of answers.

As she took her last breaths, we promised McKenna we would do everything in our power to fight in her name and ensure that no other child or family would suffer as she did, as we do.

Donating McKenna’s tumor to provide opportunities to develop cell lines and advance research was our first step to fulfilling the promise we made to our girl, and in fighting back against the tumor that took our child. But, for us, it wasn’t enough.

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Since 2002, the Atlanta area has proudly made the St. Baldrick’s Foundation part of its annual St. Patrick’s Day tradition, and the newest part of that celebration includes marching in the city’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

The Flemings became involved with the Foundation when they organized their first St. Baldrick’s signature head-shaving event in honor of their daughter, Ciara, who had been diagnosed in the fall of 2001 (just a month before her 2nd birthday) with a rare cancer, rhabdomyosarcoma. Now, 12 years later and cancer free, Ciara has organized two St. Baldrick’s events of her own, and says, “Thanks to all the amazing shavees and volunteers who help raise money for research, I’m 10 1/2 years in remission.”

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By Michael Hogarty, M.D., St. Baldrick’s Research Grant Recipient, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Five years ago at a childhood cancer conference, I sat next to someone who would significantly impact the childhood cancer research I am doing today. She was a St. Baldrick’s staff member who listened as I lamented that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) wasn’t interested in funding genomic sequencing of childhood cancers. At that time the NIH was only supporting whole genome sequencing for common adult cancers, like breast and colon cancer, as this new technology was especially expensive and resource-intensive. She smiled, introduced herself, and told me that this was exactly the kind of research the St. Baldrick’s Foundation wanted to fund- important pediatric cancer studies that were not considered a funding priority at the national level- and encouraged me to apply for a grant from their foundation.

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While shavees and volunteers are raising funds to be used for grants, researchers are making their way through a rigorous grant application process. The St. Baldrick’s Foundation had over 100 reviewers from the pediatric hematology and oncology community review grants in 2012.

Each application is reviewed by at least three pediatric hematology/oncology researchers, using the same rating system used by the National Cancer Institute. If all three reviewers give an application an excellent score, it’s recommended for funding. (A poor score from all three means it’s not recommended.) If the scores vary or are not decisive, the application goes to a larger committee of reviewers to discuss and vote on a final score.

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In my perfect world, I imagine a day when a child comes to my office with a cancer diagnosis and I can prescribe a 10-day course of medicine, just like penicillin for strep throat, and he’s cured. This summer, with the help of donors like you, the St. Baldrick’s Foundation was able to fund a record-breaking total of $23 million in grants towards lifesaving childhood cancer research, bringing the Foundation’s funding total to more than $101 million since becoming an independent charity in 2005. This research is the only path to perfect-world treatments.

These grants will have great impact on children with cancer – keeping the research and clinical trials going, which is the lifeblood of improving treatment. They will help families and all of the institutions that help those families, both in the U.S. and around the world.

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St. Baldrick’s Research Grants are one-year awards for pediatric cancer researchers to conduct hypothesis-driven research to find new cures or improve treatments for childhood cancers. This research may be laboratory or clinical in nature. Some research grants focus on a single disease type, and others are designed to help children and teens with all types of childhood cancers. This year 14 St. Baldrick’s Research Grants were funded, totaling more than $1.3 million.

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