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Lymphoma and leukemia are cancers that often strike children. Some types of these cancers cannot grow or survive without a protein called MALT1. As the Do It For Dominic Fund St. Baldrick's Fellow, Dr. Maurer found that, in some lymphoma cells, when the level of another protein called GRK2 was lowered, it led to more action of the MALT1, and more cancer growth. So, she thinks that GRK2 might be working to stop lymphoma tumors by blocking MALT1. She is working to find out two things: Does the level of GRK2 also affect the growth of leukemia? And how exactly does GRK2 interact with MALT1 to block its tumor-growing action? Understanding this interaction will help to design new treatments that work by blocking the MALT1 and stopping the growth of lymphoma cells, and perhaps leukemia cells too, so that children can be cured.

This grant is named for the Do It for Dominic Fund which honors the memory of Dominic Cairo who battled non-Hodgkins lymphoma and was a hero to his school and community. His family and friends continue to raise funds and support research in the hopes that no child has to go through what Dominic endured.