Grants Search Results

Pediatric Burkitt Lymphoma (BL) arises from errors during immune (B cell) development. Treatment failure is associated with dismal outcomes, and many pediatric BL survivors will suffer long-term toxicities from therapy, highlighting the need to explore opportunities to identify patients who may be cured with less intense therapies. Little is currently known about the biology of pediatric BL and clinical implications of specific mutations. Therefore, systematic analysis of tissue from children treated on clinical trials represents a unique opportunity to gain insights from valuable specimens to inform biologic risk-based chemotherapy and identify potential targeted therapeutic strategies. Dr. Allen will characterize intrinsic and acquired genetic factors that underlie pathogenesis and predict response to therapy in patients with pediatric BL who have completed treatment on COG clinical trials.

This grant is funded by and named for Jack's Pack - We Still Have His Back, a St. Baldrick's Hero Fund. Jack Klein was a ten year old who loved life, laughing and monkeys. During his illness, his community of family and friends near and far rallied around him under the moniker "Jack's Pack". Their slogan was "We have Jack's Back". After Jack succumbed to Burkitt's Lymphoma, his "pack" focused their energy and efforts to funding a cure...just as Jack would have wanted.

Each year, approximately 1000 Americans aged 20 years or younger are diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Currently, even the most effective targeted drug BCL2 inhibitor-venetoclax (VEN) cannot eradicate all leukemia cells. The remaining cells cause disease recurrence and result in a very low overall survival rate for AML patients. In preliminary studies, Dr. Li found that targeting an enzyme called ADSS2 promotes pediatric AML cells sensitivity to VEN induced mitochondrial apoptosis, resulting in a synthetic lethality. This study will ask how ADSS2 preserves AML cells fitness and test the effectiveness of a first-in-class ADSS2 inhibitor combined with VEN or other BCL2 family protein MCL1 inhibitor in models of AML. If successful, this could lead to a clinical trial with potential impact for childhood AML patients.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: Reducing Ethnic Disparities in Acute Leukemia (REDIAL) Consortium. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: Reducing Ethnic Disparities in Acute Leukemia (REDIAL) Consortium. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: Reducing Ethnic Disparities in Acute Leukemia (REDIAL) Consortium. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: Reducing Ethnic Disparities in Acute Leukemia (REDIAL) Consortium. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: Reducing Ethnic Disparities in Acute Leukemia (REDIAL) Consortium. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: Reducing Ethnic Disparities in Acute Leukemia (REDIAL) Consortium. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.

While great strides have been made in treating children with acute leukemia, some children continue to do poorly. For example, children of Hispanic ethnicity are at greater risk of both relapse and treatment-related complications. The Reducing Ethnic Disparities in Acute Leukemia (REDIAL) Consortium will expand and enhance the recently established network of childhood cancer centers, with the goal of tackling ethnic outcome disparities by generating an unmatched resource of clinical information and biological samples. This information will be used to predict those who have the greatest risk of poor outcomes, with a focus on Hispanics, to improve prevention and treatment strategies. Funds administered by Baylor College of Medicine.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: Malignant Germ Cell Tumors International Consortium (MaGIC). For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: Malignant Germ Cell Tumors International Consortium (MaGIC). For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: Malignant Germ Cell Tumors International Consortium (MaGIC). For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: Malignant Germ Cell Tumors International Consortium (MaGIC). For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: Malignant Germ Cell Tumors International Consortium (MaGIC). For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA.

Although germ cell tumors are the most common solid tumors of adolescents and young adults, care and progress has been hampered by fragmentation between pediatric and medical oncology. No major breakthrough in therapy has occurred for over 4 decades, and limited molecular understanding hampers the ability to tailor therapy or discover new drugs that could change outcomes. Through collaboration and joint projects and initiatives, the Malignant Germ Cell Tumors International Consortium (MaGIC) of the world’s leading scientists and clinicians from both pediatric and medical oncology has been able to make some important advances in clinical trial design and biologic understanding of this cancer: a new molecular test to detect relapse, a new molecular test to assign risk group and several jointly designed adolescent and young adult clinical trials using novel drugs and treatment approaches. Funds administered by Dana–Farber Cancer Institute.

Adoptive immunotherapy has demonstrated unprecedented success in the treatment of pediatric leukemia. Extending its therapeutic potential to other pediatric malignancies such as glioblastoma (GBM) has proved challenging. In this therapy, T cells are isolated from a patient, expanded outside of the body, and genetically modified prior to reinfusion. The ability of these T cells to recognize and eliminate cancer cells is improved by expressing a protein (CAR) on the T cell surface. An important challenge is to minimize the manipulation of patients' T cells outside the body. Prolonged culture compromises their efficacy. Dr. Ghassemi developed approaches to generate CAR T cells in 1 day. These cells have increased potency. She is combining this recent development with a metabolic strategy to overcome the metabolic nature of tumor environment. This synthetic advancement combined with the production of CAR T cells in 1 day will lead to superior CAR T cells for cellular immunotherapies against pediatric GBM.

This grant is funded by and named for the Be Brooks Brave Fund. Despite his diagnosis at age 5 with inoperable brain and spinal tumors, Brooks taught so many people what life is truly about--love. He was BRAVE beyond his years with an inspiring “faith over fear” attitude. This Hero Fund hopes to raise money for high-grade glioma research so no other family will hear the words, “there is no cure”.

Ewing sarcoma, an aggressive bone cancer that occurs in children and young adults, is caused by an abnormal chimeric protein (EWS-FLI1) that prevents cells from maturing into normal connective tissues through a process known as cell differentiation. How EWS-FLI1 acts to stop differentiation, however, remains an enigma. To solve this problem, Dr. Ludwig uses powerful gene editing tools to systematically turn the EWS-FLI1 protein up or down, then measures whether such changes allow cancer cells to behave more normally. The information gained from this research is expected to lead to new anti-cancer treatments for adolescents and young adults battling Ewing sarcoma.

This grant is named for The Shohet Family Fund for Ewing Sarcoma Research. Noah was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma in his freshman year in college. After limb salvage surgery and chemotherapy, he was able to return to school. Two years later, Noah relapsed and sadly passed away. This Hero Fund honors his courageous fight and hopes to raise funds for Ewing sarcoma research.

The majority of children with newly diagnosed Burkitt lymphoma (BL) are cured. Unfortunately, the outcome is poor for patients whose disease returns (relapse). The relapse is caused by multiple reasons but mainly is due to drug resistance and suppression by the tumor surroundings. Novel therapeutic approaches are urgently needed. Natural killer (NK) cells can attack cancer cells. Dr. Cairo is developing immunotherapeutic agents to enhance the functions of NK cells to kill BL. Expanded NK cells will be modified by genetic techniques to specifically target CD20 and a special protein will be developed to bind to another surface protein CD19 on BL. A virus will be created to secrete IL21 to enhance NK persistence and function. If successful, the combinatorial therapies will become available to pediatric BL patients in the clinical setting and would offer a potentially more effective and less toxic therapeutic approach, ultimately leading to improved survival.

This grant is funded by and named for Jack's Pack - We Still Have His Back, a St. Baldrick's Hero Fund. Jack Klein was a ten year old who loved life, laughing and monkeys. During his illness, his community of family and friends near and far rallied around him under the moniker "Jack's Pack". Their slogan was "We have Jack's Back". After Jack succumbed to Burkitt's Lymphoma, his "pack" focused their energy and efforts to funding a cure...just as Jack would have wanted.

There has been little recent progress in treating Ewing sarcoma, a pediatric tumor involving bone. Dr. Stegmaier and colleagues have used a technology called CRISPR to identify urgently needed, new therapeutic targets for this disease. They prioritized a class of targets which are expressed in immature but not mature tissues. These proteins are often abnormally re-expressed in cancers such as Ewing sarcoma. Thus, drugs targeting these proteins would be expected to have minimal toxicity. The Stegmaier lab identified the target IGF2BP1 as a top selective gene dependency in Ewing sarcoma; deletion of IGF2BP1 was more deleterious to Ewing sarcoma than all other cancer types screened. Importantly, IGF2BP1 is not expressed in most normal human cells. Dr. Stegmaier will validate IGF2BP1 as a therapeutic target in Ewing and will determine the mechanisms by which Ewing sarcoma cells rely on IGF2BP1 for growth. With IGF2BP1 chemical inhibitors in development, this project has exciting translational potential for patients with Ewing sarcoma.

This grant is funded by and named for The Ben Brandenburg Fund for Ewing Sarcoma Research. Ben passed away at the age of 15. He is remembered for his quick wit, indomitable spirit and bravery. This fund is his lasting legacy and ensures that research is funded so fewer children will have to suffer from Ewing Sarcoma.

Limited progress has been made over the last 30 years against kid brain tumors, especially those in the thalamus and the pons (Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma, DIPG), a specific location in the brain. Radiotherapy (RT) is the only treatment available that can prolong the life of children with the most aggressive form of brain tumors. Recently, RT is recognized to activate the immune system against multiple tumors. However irradiated kid brain cancers always regrow which suggest that RT is not activating immunity against these tumors. Understanding why this phenomenon is happening is critical to develop strategies that will exploit the immune stimulation from RT to control and cure brain cancer. The activation of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) by RT can be responsible for treatment resistance and the lack of immune stimulation of kids brain cancers. Dr. Vanpouille-Box's initial results show that stopping the immunosuppression of CAFs with a fibroblast activating protein alpha (FAP) blocker re-activates the immune system against irradiated pediatric brain tumors. Thus, blocking CAF emerges as a novel approach to prevent brain cancer regrow and to activate immunity in irradiated brain cancer. She proposes to: 1) Define the role of CAF in mice models of pediatric brain cancer 2) Determine the efficacy of CAF and EGFR blockade in irradiated pediatric brain cancer. Dr. Vanpouille-Box and colleagues hope to find that: - CAF stop the immune stimulation of irradiated pediatric brain tumors - blocking CAF immunosuppression works well to reactivate immunity against irradiated brain cancer, especially on the context of epidermal growth factor receptor therapy.

This grant is named for the Pray for Dominic Hero Fund. The fund was established in honor of Dominic Liples who lived with joy. He is remembered for compassion and determination while he faced his own difficult battle with a rare and aggressive brain cancer. The Pray for Dominic fund carries on Dominic's legacy of joy and hope by funding research for high-grade gliomas.