Grants Search Results

This grant develops, implements, and evaluates a novel curriculum in humanism and professionalism for pediatric oncology fellows. Funds will also be used to determine the optimal size of the pediatric hematology-oncology fellow workforce in order to meet the clinical demands of the field.

This grant funds a Clinical Research Associate to ensure that more kids can be treated on clinical trials, often their best hope for a cure.

This grant funds a Clinical Research Associate to ensure that more kids can be treated on clinical trials, often their best hope for a cure.

This grant helps provide necessary resources to build an early phase clinical trial program, and increase the number of such trial enrollments.

This grant funds a Research Assistant to ensure that more kids can be treated on clinical trials, often their best hope for a cure.

This grant funds a Clinical Research Associate to ensure that more kids can be treated on clinical trials, often their best hope for a cure.

Funding from the St. Baldrick's Foundation has taken two very small programs at UIC and Rush Medical Centers, merged them and brought Stroger Medical Center into the fold to forge a single entity for purposes of participation in Children's Oncology Group clinical trials. This support of necessary personnel has significantly increased clinical trial participation for patients who otherwise might not have access to them.

This grant funds a Clinical Research Coordinator to ensure that more kids can be treated on clinical trials, often their best hope for a cure.

This grant funds a Research Nurse to ensure that more kids can be treated on clinical trials, often their best hope for a cure.

Brain tumors are the most common solid cancer in children, and are often cured with radiation therapy. While radiation attacks the tumor, it can also leave the child with significant learning problems that affect their quality of life over the many years following cancer. Dr. Castellino focuses on understanding how heart function and brain vessel function may have been affected during treatment of the brain tumor. The goal of this research is to create strategies to prevent or lessen the injury to the brain during treatment, not only to cure the cancer in children, but also to preserve normal function for productive and healthy lives as cancer survivors.

Leukemia is the most common childhood cancer. Some types of leukemia cells have abnormal genetic material. One of these abnormalities is known to affect the CALM protein, which is essential for the cell to obtain iron from the body that is necessary for cell growth. Dr. Heath believes that leukemias with the abnormal CALM-AF10 protein will not have enough iron and by reducing the amount of iron available to them, the leukemia cells may be affected. This research project attempts to prove that these two mutations can cooperate to form leukemia. Dr. Heath also attempts to show that mutations of WT1 cause cells to function abnormally, which contribute to the development of leukemia. Preliminary work shows that cells with WT1 mutations grow faster and more aggressively. The first model to study the cooperation of FLT3/ITD and WT1 mutations has been created. Ultimately, if WT1 mutations are shown to contribute to the formation of leukemia, the development of a drug that interferes with WT1 could improve cure rates in patients with AML.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Gramatges was awarded new grants in 2016 and 2017 to fund additional years of this Scholar award. Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is treated with intensive chemotherapy that results in treatment-related toxicities in 80% of patients, some so severe that the patient does not survive therapy. Dr. Gramatges's research investigates genetic markers characterizing the subpopulation of children and young adults with AML who are at risk for severe treatment-related toxicities. Validation of these markers may lead to upfront screening of individuals with newly diagnosed AML, and in cases where these markers are discovered, modifications to the treatment regimen and closer monitoring to reduce treatment-related morbidity and mortality in this disease.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Sabnis was awarded a new grant in 2015 to fund an optional third year of this fellowship. Cure rates for children and adolescents with metastatic rhabdomyosarcoma, the most common soft tissue sarcoma in childhood, remain poor despite decades of research. While researchers know the mutation, PAX3-FOXO1, that causes an aggressive form of this cancer, getting rid of the mutation does not kill cancer cells. Since PAX3-FOXO1 drives cells to create many new proteins, Dr. Sabnis hypothesizes that these cells depend on buffers that keep proteins from misfolding or clumping into toxic aggregates. This project tests whether blocking HSP70, one such buffer, specifically and effectively kills sarcoma cells. Understanding this vulnerability will open the way for better treatments.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Ladle was awarded a new grant in 2015 to fund an optional third year of this fellowship. While the body's immune system is capable of attacking cancer, many factors prevent this from happening. The goal of Dr. Ladle's research is to develop a vaccine to be given to patients that activates their own immune system to treat their cancer. The project focuses on how the body regulates the immune system to normally ignore cancer. New drugs are being developed that could help take the brakes off the immune system and allow it to recognize and attack cancer. Combining these drugs with a cancer vaccine could provide the boost needed for immune therapies to effectively treat pediatric cancers.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Schuback was awarded a new grant in 2015 to fund an optional third year of this fellowship. Dr. Schuback's research aims to improve treatment for children with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), a type of blood cancer. This work focuses on characterizing the scope of mutations in a specific gene, ETV6, in children with AML. Preliminary work indicates that patients with such mutations are more likely to have a poor outcome. This project hopes to use the mutations in ETV6 as a marker to identify patients at high risk of relapse at the beginning of their treatment, in order to predetermine therapies that are most likely to succeed.

AML is a devastating form of leukemia. Therapy for AML is highly toxic and, still, only a minority of patients survive. This project aims to develop new, less toxic, and more effective therapies for AML. Dr. Salstrom hopes to use models to determine exactly which therapies will work best for which patients. This approach, called personalized medicine, allows researchers to treat each child's individual leukemia in the most effective and safest way possible.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Bona was awarded a new grant in 2015 to fund an optional third year of this fellowship. The goal of this research is to identify social factors that contribute to childhood cancer mortality, and symptoms and suffering during treatment. While we know that poverty is associated with poor health in pediatric primary care and children with chronic illness, we don't know how poverty impacts the health of children with cancer. Dr. Bona will develop a screening tool which can be used to identify childhood cancer families at-risk for material hardship, and to study the relationship between poverty and childhood cancer outcomes, with the ultimate goal of designing ways to improve pediatric cancer outcomes related to poverty.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Choo, the Tap Cancer Out St. Baldrick’s Fellow, was awarded a new grant in 2015 to fund an optional third year of this fellowship. Ewing sarcoma is a bone and soft tissue cancer that occurs in adolescent and young adults (AYAs). When the cancer spreads (metastasis), survival falls below 30% despite aggressive chemotherapy and surgery. Fortunately, promising data has identified certain genes that are specifically turned on in metastatic Ewing cells. By developing targeted therapy against these gene products, Dr. Choo hopes to effectively treat Ewing sarcoma. In addition, targeting this unique pathway may reduce the use of conventional toxic chemotherapy agents that can cause cancer themselves. Ultimately, this research may help reduce both morbidity and save countless children with metastatic Ewing sarcoma.

This grant recognizes the partnership with Tap Cancer Out, a jiu-jitsu based 501(c)(3) nonprofit raising awareness and funds for cancer fighting organizations on behalf of the grappling community.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Velasquez was awarded a new grant in 2015 to fund an optional third year of this fellowship. Cancer treatments consisting of the infusion of T cells (one component of the patient's own immune system) that recognize CD19 (a molecule present on many blood cancers) have shown promise in early clinical studies. However, not all patients currently benefit from CD19-specific T-cell infusions. Dr. Velasquez's lab is conducting studies to optimize a new genetic approach with the ultimate goal of developing a clinical study to address this issue.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Fabbri was awarded new grants in 2016 and 2017 to fund additional years of this Scholar award. In neuroblastoma, a common childhood solid cancer, immune cells called tumor infiltrating macrophages (TAMs) promote neuroblastoma growth and spread. The mechanism for this process is unknown. Dr. Fabbri has shown in another type of cancer that cancer cells secrete special genes that induce TAMs to release a signal that promotes cancer growth. Dr. Fabbri is investigating how these genes and TAMs affect neuroblastoma growth, and testing what drugs can interrupt this process, with the goal of improving neuroblastoma treatment.