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Based on progress to date, Dr. Peltier was awarded a new grant in 2020 to fund an additional year of this Fellow award. Bone marrow transplantation (BMT) is required to cure many childhood cancers. However, bone marrow transplantation is often complicated by severe and often fatal side effects. Both the beneficial anti-cancer effects and harmful side effects of bone marrow transplantation are due in part to the new immune system that the patient receives. Unfortunately, we do not know how to precisely fine tune this new immune system to make BMT safer for more children. As the Hope for Harper St. Baldrick's Fellow, Dr. Peltier seeks to further understand in his work how a component of this new immune system is controlled by a recently identified class of genes called non-coding RNAs (ncRNA). These ncRNA genes do not make proteins like classic genes, but instead regulate the production and function of proteins made by classical genes. His early data shows that unique ncRNA genes from multiple classes of ncRNAs are turned on and off following BMT. However, it is not known if or how these unique ncRNA genes influence the new immune system after BMT. Dr. Peltier seeks to further understand the function of these ncRNAs following BMT, which may suggest ways of developing medicines to improve BMT.

This grant is named for and generously supported by the Hope from Harper Fund created to honor Harper Wehneman who was diagnosed with Wilms tumor just before her 8th birthday. She fought valiantly throughout her cancer journey and is remembered for inspiring people to choose joy no matter the circumstance. This fund continues her legacy by giving hope to kids fighting cancer through research for stem cell transplant survival.