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Press Release

St. Baldrick’s Foundation Announces $17.5 Million in Grants to Fund Lifesaving Childhood Cancer Research


July 22, 2019
  • Press Release
  • For Immediate Release
  • Media Contact:
    • Michele Franco
    • 626.792.8247 ext. 264
    • michele.franco@stbaldricks.org

St. Baldrick’s Foundation Announces $17.5 Million in Grants
to Fund Lifesaving Childhood Cancer Research

LOS ANGELES (July 23, 2019) – The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, the largest private funder of childhood cancer research grants, is proud to award 55 grants totaling $17.5 million to support physician-scientists studying innovative treatment options in the pediatric cancer space. This is the largest of several annual funding cycles, including 5 grant types.

In the United States, one in five kids diagnosed with cancer will not survive and out of those who do survive, by the age of 50, more than 99 percent experience chronic health problems. Of today’s survivors, 96 percent have had a severe or life-threatening condition by the age of 50.

With these newly awarded grants, funded by St. Baldrick’s volunteers and generous donors, childhood cancer researchers can now work to get projects off the ground, moving novel treatment approaches to the next phase of testing more efficiently. Ultimately, these grants will provide better therapies and reveal potential new treatments and cures for kids with cancer.

“I’m humbled by the hard work of St. Baldrick’s volunteers and the generosity of our donors,” said Kathleen Ruddy, CEO of the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. “Their unified efforts, together with those of the childhood cancer research community and our employees, enable us to identify research proposals with the greatest potential to improve the chance of survival and the long-term lives of children fighting cancer. As no single research institution has a monopoly on talent or innovation, our supporters make the best research possible, wherever the ideas are, and because of them, St. Baldrick’s continues to lead the charge to take childhood back from cancer.”

Since 2005, St. Baldrick’s has granted over $279 million to support the most promising research to find cures for childhood cancers and give survivors longer, healthier lives.

The following institutions were awarded new grants:

  • Alabama
    • The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Ala.
  • California
    • Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Calif.
    • City of Hope, Duarte, Calif.
    • University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, Calif.
    • University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, Calif.
  • Connecticut
    • University of Connecticut, Storrs, Conn.
  • Florida
    • University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla.
  • Georgia
    • Emory University, Atlanta, Ga.
  • Illinois
    • Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.
    • The University of Chicago Medicine, Chicago, Ill.
  • Kentucky
    • University of Kentucky Research Foundation
  • Maryland
    • Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, Baltimore
  • Massachusetts
    • Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Mass.
    • Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Mass.
    • Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, Mass.
    • Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, Mass.
  • Michigan
    • University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.
  • Minnesota
    • University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, Minn.
  • Missouri
    • Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Mo.
  • New York
    • NYU School of Medicine, New York, N.Y.
  • North Carolina
    • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, N.C.
  • Ohio
    • Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio
    • Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
    • The Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, Ohio
  • Oregon
    • Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Ore.
  • Pennsylvania
    • Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pa.
    • Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pa.
  • Tennessee
    • St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tenn.
    • Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn.
  • Texas
    • Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
    • The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
    • UT Health San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas
  • Washington
    • Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Wash.
    • University of Washington, Seattle, Wash.
  • China
    • Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China

To see the research St. Baldrick’s is funding near you or in a specific type of research, visit the Grants Search page, or to learn more about each grant category visit the Grant Types page at StBaldricks.org. The next St. Baldrick’s grant cycle will be announced this fall.

To join the fight and learn more about ways to fundraise or participate in St. Baldrick’s head-shaving events, visit St. Baldrick’s registration page. Connect with St. Baldrick’s on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Vimeo.

About St. Baldrick’s Foundation
As the largest private funder of childhood cancer research grants, the St. Baldrick’s Foundation is leading the charge to take childhood back from cancer. St. Baldrick’s funds some of the most brilliant childhood cancer research experts who are working to find cures and better treatments for all childhood cancers. Kids need treatments as unique as they are – and that starts with funding research just for them. Join us at StBaldricks.org to help support the best childhood cancer research, no matter where it takes place.

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