Grants Search Results

Based on progress to date, Dr. Green was awarded a new grant in 2016 to fund an additional year of this Fellow award. High-grade gliomas (HGG) are brain tumors that are usually fatal in children. Dr. Green's work has recently shown promising results using a new medicine called Selinexor in laboratory models of HGG. Dr. Green, the Luke’s Army Pediatric Cancer Research Fund St. Baldrick’s Fellow, believes Selinexor works by restoring the function of proteins that suppress the tumor and acts as the brakes in cancer cells. Dr. Green's team is testing Selinexor for safety in children with various brain and solid tumors, and to see if it can extend survival.

A portion of this grant is named for the Luke's Army Pediatric Cancer Research Fund. Luke Ungerer brought smiles and sunshine wherever he went with plenty to share with everyone. He battled a brain tumor with a positive spirit and inspired others with his courage in his short life. This fund was created to carry on Luke’s legacy of positivity with the hope that it will ripple across many lives for many years to come. Awarded at Boston Children's Hospital and transferred to University of Colorado.

While great advances have been made in childhood cancer treatment, all children do not benefit equally from these innovations. Previous research suggests that disadvantaged children are more likely to die from cancer because their families have difficulty complying with treatment guidelines. Enhancing childhood cancer families’ abilities to adhere to treatment protocols is of critical importance to ensure that all children benefit from innovations in care. Dr. Gage-Bouchard is examining the factors that shape families’ abilities to comply with treatment protocols – a critical first step in developing interventions to increase treatment adherence among children diagnosed with cancer.

This grant funds a medical student to complete work in pediatric oncology research for the summer. The experience may encourage them to choose childhood cancer research as a specialty.

This grant funds a student to complete work in pediatric oncology research for the summer. The experience may encourage them to choose childhood cancer research as a specialty.

Rhabdomyosarcomas are the most common soft-tissue cancers in children and adolescents. Current treatments are often ineffective, and researchers need new ideas to treat this cancer. Dr. Hettmer has developed a new model of pleomorphic rhabdomyosarcoma, and is using this to show that a protein (Gremlin 1) produced by rhabdomyosarcoma tumors could be important. She is investigating how Gremlin 1 changes rhabdomyosarcoma behavior and whether it can serve as a drug target. Awarded at Children's Hospital Boston and transferred to Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Bandopadhayay was awarded new grants in 2017 and 2018 to fund additional years of this Scholar award. Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant brain cancer of childhood. As the Hannah's Heroes St. Baldrick's Scholar, Dr. Bandopadhayay and her lab have shown that the drug JQ1 can hinder the cancer causing effects of a gene called MYC in one of the most aggressive types of medulloblastoma. This project aims to identify drugs which can be added to JQ1 to improve effectiveness. The results of this project will help determine combination therapies that can be used to treat children with this aggressive type of brain tumor.

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.”

Based on progress to date, Dr. Barbieri was awarded new grants in 2017 and 2018 to fund additional years of this Scholar award. More than half of the patients with high-risk neuroblastoma will relapse despite intensive multimodal therapy. Treatments for these patients are challenging given disease heterogeneity, drug resistance, and toxicity. Dr. Barbieri’s project aims to develop novel targeted therapies for children with high-risk neuroblastoma whose disease is unresponsive to conventional therapies. By better understanding the metabolic changes occurring during the development of neuroblastoma, we will improve the clinical efficacy of current differentiating therapies for this aggressive disease.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Blanc was awarded new grants in 2017 and 2018 to fund additional years of this Scholar award. Diamond Blackfan Anemia is a rare genetic disease characterized by a dramatic decrease in red blood cells. Patients affected by this condition are more prone to develop cancers, like cancer of the bone. Dr. Blanc, Allied World St. Baldrick's Scholar, is studying the mechanism by which this cancer develops in these patients. This research aims to help understand how these tumors form, provide new targets for treatment, and improve cure rates.

This grant is named for the Allied World team, whose employees have raised more than $1.1 million since 2008 for life-saving research through the St. Baldrick's Foundation.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Cheshier was awarded new grants in 2017 and 2018 to fund additional years of this Scholar award. Malignant primary brain tumors are the most common solid tumors in children and are a leading cause of death. Dr. Cheshier, Ty Louis Campbell Foundation St. Baldrick’s Scholar, aims to treat these cancers by stimulating the immune system to "eat" the cancer cells while leaving normal cells alone. This strategy combines a newly developed antibody protein that stimulates the "eating" cells of the immune system with known antibody proteins that can target brain tumors. Dr. Cheshier will then immediately translate these novel treatment combinations into clinical trials in children with malignant brain tumors. Awarded at Stanford University, and transferred to University of Utah.

This grant is named for the Ty Louis Campbell Foundation, created in memory of Ty Louis Campbell, and funds innovative research and clinical trials specifically geared toward the treatment of the deadliest childhood cancers.

Based on progress to date, Dr. de Blank was awarded new grants in 2017 and 2018 to fund additional years of this Scholar award. Although therapies have improved for children with brain tumors, survival for malignant disease remains poor. Most of these children will have a recurrence of their tumor in the area of their original tumor, likely due to a tumor that was never fully removed. Dr. de Blank is investigating a new radiographic tool to diagnose brain tumors prior to surgery and define the extent of the tumor's invasion. This tool aims to improve outcomes by identifying children at risk for tumor recurrence and poor outcomes.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Feng was awarded new grants in 2017 and 2018 to fund additional years of this Scholar award and has been named the Arden Quinn Bucher Memorial Fund St. Baldrick's Scholar. An amplified gene, MYCN, is found in ~30% of neuroblastomas, and is associated with highly aggressive tumors and extremely poor prognosis. Dr. Feng's work on T-cell leukemia recently showed that when a specific gene is turned off it will prevent tumor growth caused by a close relative of MYCN, C-MYC. This research aims to test if targeting this gene will suppress neuroblastoma development associated with MYCN activity.

This grant is funded by and named for the Arden Quinn Bucher Memorial Fund, a St. Baldrick's Hero Fund. Arden’s intelligence, empathy, and dynamic personality charmed everyone and has now become her legacy. She was diagnosed with neuroblastoma at the age of two and even throughout treatment, bravely managed to keep smiling and learning. This memorial fund supports St. Baldrick’s mission of funding the most promising research with the hope of changing outcomes for children battling cancer.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Forlenza was awarded a new grant in 2016 to fund an additional year of this Fellow award. Neuroblastoma patients can be treated with a molecule called 3F8, which attaches to tumor cells to tell the immune system that they should be killed. Dr. Forlenza, the David's Warriors St. Baldrick's Fellow, is researching how a part of the immune system, called natural killer (NK) cells, influences the success or failure of 3F8. Currently, researchers know that the ability of the NK cells to respond to 3F8 can be inhibited by interactions with the tumor cells. This research is testing a second molecule to block these interactions, aiming to improve NK function and increase tumor killing.

This grant is named for the "David's Warriors" Hero Fund created in memory of David Heard to honor the spirit in which he lived, embracing life until the very end.

This project creates an international federation of experts in research and treatment of acute myeloid leukemia, an aggressive and frequently incurable blood cancer. The purpose is to integrate and share knowledge from real-time experiments that assess how the genetic alterations in leukemia cells influence response to therapies. Each patient's leukemia cells are profiled and physicians get the results in a rapid timeframe, which allows selection of treatments that have higher chances of benefit - this is called "precision" medicine. The know-how originated from this alliance will certainly advance the understanding of the disease and guide further investigation of promising drugs.

This institution is a member of a research project which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: The AML Federation Project. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: Sage Bionetworks, Seattle, WA.

This institution is a member of a research project which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: The AML Federation Project. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: Sage Bionetworks, Seattle, WA.

This institution is a member of a research project which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: The AML Federation Project. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: Sage Bionetworks, Seattle, WA.

This institution is a member of a research project which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: The AML Federation Project. For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: Sage Bionetworks, Seattle, WA.

Most children dying of cancer have tumors that have developed “resistance” to conventional treatments like chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Scientists know very little about what is occurring in cancer cells to cause this, and therefore we have few options on how to cure such patients. Dr. Hogarty's team recently discovered that resistant cancer cells have altered the way their mitochondria, a key part of all cells, respond to the stress of cancer treatments; this leads to their inability to die. This research aims to explore this discovery further and find out opportunities to exploit it.

Pediatric glioblastoma (GBM) is a devastating tumor and most patients with this diagnosis will not survive two years. Adolescent patients with GBM often have mutation of the ATRX gene. As treatments for cancer are becoming increasingly personalized, mutated ATRX genes allow for a promising target for treatment in patients with GBM. The goal of Dr. Koshmann's work is to determine if mutated ATRX genes create a susceptibility to certain DNA-damaging treatments.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Li was awarded new grants in 2017 and 2018 to fund additional years of this Scholar award. Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma is one of the most common tumors in children and adolescents. No effective therapy is currently available for advanced staged patients, partly due to poor understanding of the disease. It is still considered mysterious because the exact cells from which the tumors develop (cells of origin) are not clear.  Like fingerprints, there are certain molecular events that are signatures of the tumor. By following these signatures Dr. Li, St. Baldrick's V Scholar, and his team recently started to pick up hints that are potentially the cells of origin for this mysterious tumor. The goal of this study is a better understanding of the disease and to yield important information, which will guide the development of more effective therapeutic approaches. This grant is named for The V Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to saving lives by helping to find a cure for cancer.