Grants Search Results

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: New Approaches to Neuroblastoma Therapy (NANT) Consortium. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: New Approaches to Neuroblastoma Therapy (NANT) Consortium. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: New Approaches to Neuroblastoma Therapy (NANT) Consortium. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: New Approaches to Neuroblastoma Therapy (NANT) Consortium. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: New Approaches to Neuroblastoma Therapy (NANT) Consortium. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: New Approaches to Neuroblastoma Therapy (NANT) Consortium. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: New Approaches to Neuroblastoma Therapy (NANT) Consortium. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: New Approaches to Neuroblastoma Therapy (NANT) Consortium. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA.

All proteins in our bodies are made using assembly instructions contained in messenger RNAs, or mRNA. mRNA molecules themselves are constructed from building blocks called exons. When exons are joined together, or 'spliced', out of order, the resulting protein code is scrambled. This is what causes several types of leukemias in older adults. We have discovered that incorrect splicing also occurs with high frequency in childhood leukemias originating in antibody-producing B-cells. Dr. Thomas-Tikhonenko is testing two ideas. The first is that incorrect splicing is needed to sustain uncontrolled multiplication of leukemic cells. The second is that restoring proper exon assembly with specific drugs would slow down or block cancerous growth. If successful, these studies could pave the way to new clinical trials and improved survival of children with leukemia.

Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, also referred to as brainstem glioma, is a pediatric cancer that accounts for the majority of deaths from brain tumors in children. Although radiation therapy is the standard of care for brainstem gliomas, the median survival of children with this tumor type is less than one year from diagnosis. In order to improve the treatment of these patients, Dr. Kirsch's team is using a model of brainstem glioma that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of new therapies. Using this model, they are testing whether removing a protein called ATM, which is the target of drugs now entering clinical trials, will enhance radiation sensitivity in brainstem gliomas. They hypothesize that deleting this target, when given in combination with radiation therapy, will increase the number of tumor cells killed by radiation and will therefore improve survival in brainstem gliomas when they have a specific gene mutation commonly found in this childhood brain tumor. If successful, these studies will inform the design of future clinical trials testing this strategy in children with brainstem gliomas.

This grant is named for Hannah’s Heroes, a St. Baldrick’s Hero Fund created in honor of Hannah Meeson and pays tribute to her fight by raising awareness and funding for all childhood cancers because kids like Hannah “are worth fighting for.”

Recently the Meshinchi lab discovered that mesothelin, a cancer-specific antigen, is highly expressed in a subset of childhood AML cases, a result that both highlights the distinct genetic differences between adult and pediatric cancers and opens the door for the development of more targeted therapies. Dr. Kolb is developing novel combinations of bispecific T-cell engaging antibodies, called SMITEs (Simultaneous Multiple Interaction T-cell Engagers) that will co-target mesothelin and the AML marker CD33. These T-cell engaging protein pairs physically link cancer cells to cytotoxic T-cells resulting in more potent and selective killing than single agents alone.

Rhabdomyosarcoma is a deadly cancer when spread through the body. With the Aiden's Army Fund St. Baldrick's Research Grant, Dr. Li is combining drugs already FDA approved for adult cancers in a way that stops rhabdomyosarcoma tumor cells from creating new tumors elsewhere in the body. This approach is unique because Dr. Li not only aims to stop the tumor cells from growing, but will try to convert what is left to non-cancerous cells similar to what is found in normal muscle.

This grant is funded by and named for the Aiden's Army Fund, a St. Baldrick's Hero Fund. Aiden Binkley who was diagnosed with Stage IV rhabdomyosarcoma at age 8. This bright, funny and courageous little boy believed he got cancer so he could grow up to find a cure for it. His vision is being carried on by Aiden’s Army through the funding of research. They will march until there is a cure!

Brain tumors are the most common solid tumor in children, and diagnostic imaging guides almost every step in the care of children with brain tumors. However, currently available imaging methods have limited accuracy. Dr. McConathy is using an amino acid tagged with radioactivity (FET) to detect abnormal metabolism in tumor tissue using positron emission tomography (PET) in combination with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). He expects this new imaging technique to improve the ability to see brain tumors before and after surgery to help doctors better plan the treatment of children with brain tumors. In the long term, Dr. McConathy expects FET-PET/MRI to help select and plan the best therapies and increase the chance of achieving cures.

Glucocorticoids, which are sometimes called "steroids", are a type of drug used to treat all children, adolescents, and adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). In fact, there is substantial evidence that glucocorticoids are the single most effective drugs used to treat ALL, and that relapse is frequently due to the fact that they stop working. Although glucocorticoids have been used for over 50 years, we still do not fully understand how they kill ALL cells and why some ALL cells become resistant and cause relapse. Dr. Shannon has developed a novel approach for generating, transplanting, and treating ALL in models that now provides an unprecedented opportunity to uncover mechanisms of drug response and resistance. The purpose of this research project is to study ALL cells that have become resistant to glucocorticoids during treatment in order to identify the underlying reasons and to use this knowledge to develop better ways of treating them.

Neuroblastoma is one of the most common childhood cancers. There are different subtypes of Neuroblastoma; some have a very poor prognosis for the patient. Dr. Stockwell's team has identified a new aggressive subtype of Neuroblastoma, called "mesenchymal", and sought new therapies that can specifically target this subtype. Since genetic markers that can identify patients with the mesenchymal subtype are know, a selective therapy will have a greater chance of success in the clinic. They recently discovered that a common type of cholesterol-lowering drug, called statins, are potent and selective killers of mesenchymal neuroblastoma cells in the lab. There are many different statins, and now Dr. Stockwell is determining which is the most potent drug and exploring why the mesenchymal subtype is so sensitive to statins. He is also testing these drugs in models of the disease to show that statins are effective at killing mesenchymal neuroblastoma cells. Since these drugs have a documented safety profile in children and well-studied pharmacological activity, these drugs can be brought through preclinical testing relatively quickly and developed as novel therapies for this aggressive pediatric cancer.

Half of neuroblastomas are high-risk neuroblastoma, with poor survival. Understanding abnormalities that drive high-risk neuroblastoma (drivers) enables development of therapies against specific drivers. Until 2015, we had identified drivers for half of high-risk neuroblastomas. Recently, most remaining high-risk neuroblastomas were shown to have high levels of TERT, a protein that helps chromosomes replicate. It is still not clear how a protein that helps chromosomes replicate could drive cancer. Perhaps TERT is needed for neuroblastoma tumors to grow, but is not driving the tumor. To distinguish these possibilities, Dr. Weiss is testing whether TERT can drive neuroblastoma in human stem-cell models. In Dr. Weiss' system, stem cells generated from normal human blood or skin cells, are differentiated to form a cell type called neural crest, from which neuroblastoma is derived. He is introducing known drivers into these cells to generate a model for neuroblastoma. Some known drivers (MYCN) lead to neuroblastoma, while others (ALK) do not. Dr. Weiss is using this model to test whether TERT is a driver, or is required for neuroblastoma in the context of other drivers (ALK). Successful completion will generate a model to evaluate whether therapy directed against TERT could help children with neuroblastoma.

This grant is generously supported by the Amanda Rozman Pediatric Cancer Research Fund created in memory of Amanda Rozman and honors her courageous battle with neuroblastoma by funding promising new to improve the efficacy and number of treatments available for relapsed and refractory neuroblastoma.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Mulama was awarded a new grant in 2020 to fund an additional year of this Scholar grant. Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus is a virus that causes cancer known as Kaposi sarcoma, which is very common in HIV+ children, especially in Africa and sometimes in individuals who get an organ transplant. Dr. Mulama is designing and testing a vaccine that prevents and treats the viral infection, as well as antibodies to detect infection in people. He will also test the vaccine so that one day it can be used as a treatment to prevent Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus infection and Kaposi sarcoma in more than 40,000 patients worldwide each year.

Cancer-related pain greatly compromises quality of life, and can increase disease morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs by reducing children's compliance to medical procedures. The burden of cancer-related pain does not end when treatment concludes: many survivors of childhood cancer report cancer-related pain well into adulthood. Thus, there is a critical need for interventions that can reduce pain during and after children's treatments for cancer. Dr. Marusak is testing whether a martial arts therapy that centers around mindful breathing and meditative techniques can reduce pain and the underlying brain mechanisms in young cancer patients and survivors.

Cancer is a genetic disease in which a cell learns to take advantage of certain processes that allow that cell to grow and survive unchecked. Bone cancer is an aggressive disease in both children and pet dogs that can be painful and often leads to death of the patient even with aggressive surgery and chemotherapy. Most often these patients die because the tumor has spread to other areas of the body, not from the original bone tumor, which is often removed with surgery. Therefore, in order to better battle this disease, new therapies that target the cells that spread are needed. Preliminary work with a new drug that targets this process has shown promise as just such a therapy. The goal of The Ben's Green Drakkoman St. Baldrick's Research Grant is to more thoroughly investigate this drug for its ability to prevent or delay spread of the tumor cells using both human and dog bone tumor cells.

This grant is named for the Ben's Green Drakkoman Fund, a St. Baldrick's Hero Fund created to honor the memory of Ben Stowell who battled osteosarcoma with an inspiring determination to live life fully. The fund is named after a super hero Ben created named the Green Drakkoman who defeats his enemy, the Evil Alien.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: New Approaches to Neuroblastoma Therapy (NANT) Consortium. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA.