Grants Search Results

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.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Liu was awarded new grants in 2017 and 2018 to fund additional years of this Scholar award. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the leading cause of cancer death in children. Despite improvements in treatment outcomes, a considerable number of patients relapse or do not respond to conventional chemotherapy. Dr. Liu's team recently found that an enzyme, called PRL2, is elevated in T-ALL cells, and that blocking PRL2 activity kills these cancer cells. This research aims to determine the effect of PRL2 inhibitors on T-ALL cells, in hopes it can be a new target in treatment of T-ALL.

Most children treated for cancer can now expect to be cured. However, in a significant majority, future fertility may be compromised by their disease or its treatment. Girls are particularly at risk to ovarian injury. These children are cured; however the girls will live the rest of their life in menopause and they will also sadly be unable to have a child of their own. Dr. Lukish's work aims to open the field of ovarian cryopreservation in children by providing an evidence base for future practice, with significant potential benefit to young girls with cancer.

Leukemia cells divide extensively, often by hijacking mechanisms that regulate normal stem cells. Dr. Magee is working to characterize genes that potentially regulate the growth of normal stem cells and leukemia cells. By characterizing these genes, Dr. Magee's team hopes that the proteins encoded by these genes will become targets for novel anti-leukemia therapies.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Mar was awarded a new grant in 2017 to fund an additional year of this Scholar award. Although many children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) are being cured today, a significant number still relapse. New targeted therapies that specifically attack the biology of ALL have great potential to improve outcomes; however, few specific biological vulnerabilities have been identified so far. Dr. Mar's team recently used a method to find novel biological vulnerabilities specific to ALL. As the Ben's Green Drakkoman Fund St. Baldrick's Scholar, Dr. Mar is studying those novel vulnerabilities in leukemia models, with the goal to understand why they are essential to ALL, and to determine their suitability for therapy.

This grant is named for the Ben's Green Drakkoman Fund, created to honor the memory of Ben Stowell who battled osteosarcoma with an inspiring determination to live life fully. The fund is named after a super hero Ben created named the Green Drakkoman who defeats his enemy, the Evil Alien.

The most common childhood cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukemia is a cancer of the bone marrow. Exciting new research shows that healthy normal bone marrow cells can protect leukemia cells from cancer drugs. Dr. Mullen's research aims to find ways to prevent normal marrow cells from protecting leukemia cells and thus make cancer drugs more effective.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Parihar was awarded a new grant in 2016 to fund an additional year of this Fellow award. Some children with cancer have solid tumors, or collections of abnormally growing cells, within their organs. These collections are made up of mostly tumor cells, but also of other cells that help the tumor hide from the bodys immune system and grow. Dr. Parihar is working to creating a new method to destroy these other cells found within solid tumors so that they cant help the tumor grow. This research aims to train the immune system to specifically recognize and kill these other cells, with the ultimate goal of curing the child of cancer.

Children with a rare brain cancer called glioblastoma rarely survive. The treatment of this cancer has not advanced for years because of difficulty accessing and growing the tumor cells. Recently, the tumor cells were found to harbor changes in a gene that is strongly conserved through evolution. Dr. Partridge has modeled the same genetic mutations in simple yeast cells to ask how the mutations impact the growth of cells and to find ways to effectively kill cells bearing the mutations. This research will then ask if similar therapies can be used to treat children with glioblastoma.

This grant is made with generous support from the "Henry Cermak Fund for Pediatric Cancer Research" created in memory of Henry Cermak and dedicated to his wish that "no one gets left out".

AML is the most common type of blood cancer. Normal blood stem cells have the capacity to produce all types of blood cells. However, impaired blood stem cells, as a consequence of genetic changes, play a central role in the initiation and progression of AML. Dr. Qian is researching how an alteration of expression of a critical gene, which is required for normal function of blood stem cells, causes AML. This study also aims to identify new therapeutic approaches to cure childhood leukemia by targeting the impaired blood stem cells.

Although most kids with a brain tumor survive the tumor itself, many have trouble doing activities that require attention and memory, and they often have difficulty fitting in with peers. Both types of difficulty could be related to changes in their brain structure or function, but research on this hasn'’t been done yet. Dr. Hoskinson is looking at whether there's a connection between these changes in brain structure and function and how kids get along with their peers. If there is, this research aims to help predict which kids will have social problems after treatment and identify ways to help.

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a very rare type of neoplasm of the blood that has not been well investigated. It has been traditionally excluded from the major cooperative research groups, and thus considered an orphan disease. However, LCH affects many children. This consortium uses a uniform treatment while investigating the biology of the disease to seek for better therapeutic targets. Awarded at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and transferred to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Funds administered by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: North American Consortium for Histiocytosis (NACHO). For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: North American Consortium for Histiocytosis (NACHO). For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: North American Consortium for Histiocytosis (NACHO). For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: North American Consortium for Histiocytosis (NACHO). For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: North American Consortium for Histiocytosis (NACHO). For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: North American Consortium for Histiocytosis (NACHO). For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: North American Consortium for Histiocytosis (NACHO). For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: North American Consortium for Histiocytosis (NACHO). For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN.

This institution is a member of a research consortium which is being funded by St. Baldrick's: North American Consortium for Histiocytosis (NACHO). For a description of this project, see the consortium grant made to the lead institution: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN.