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Press Release

St. Baldrick’s Foundation Supports Next Generation of Childhood Cancer Researchers with $1.2 million to Fund Fellowships

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March 9, 2023

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Jo Anne Avelar
joanne.avelar@stbaldricks.org

LOS ANGELES, CA (March 9, 2023) – The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, the largest charity funder of childhood cancer research grants, is proud to announce its newest round of grants. Over $1.2 million was awarded through the Foundation’s Fellowship Awards to support the next generation of childhood cancer researchers who will help to Conquer Kids’ Cancers.

St. Baldrick’s Foundation Fellowship Awards support new pediatric oncology doctors for two to three years to conduct childhood cancer research while receiving advanced training under a mentor. The $1.2 million was awarded to seven researchers who are on the path to finding new cures for pediatric cancers.

Here are the new St. Baldrick’s Foundation 2023 Fellows:

Dr. Amanda Campbell at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, OH
The goal of this project is to create immune cells to target pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Natural killer (NK) cells play an important role in the immune response to cancer by recognizing and killing tumor cells. Dr. Campbell and colleagues propose to tip the balance in favor of immune cells by knocking out a key NK cell inhibitor.

Dr. Christopher Kuo at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
Dr. Kuo’s project will focus on understanding how Ewing sarcoma tumors develop, to identify new treatment options for kids with Ewing sarcoma.

Dr. Emma Cantor at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
Dr. Cantor and colleagues are creating models that mimic the cancer formation process to define the factors that drive the production of osteosarcoma cells. Better understanding of this process may allow researchers to develop new therapeutic approaches for children with osteosarcoma.

Dr. Robert Lindquist at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, San Francisco, CA
Dr. Lindquist is working to make a new model of ependymoma, to study how the tumor forms and grows, and to test new therapies in this model to identify new therapies to extend the lives of children with this type of brain tumor.

Dr. Crystal Wang at Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford, CA
Dr. Wang and colleagues are investigating how childhood leukemia uses fat to survive in the brain and how drugs that starve leukemia of fat can kill leukemia cells hiding in the brain.

Dr. Jessica Tsai at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA
Dr.Tsai’s focus is to target bad genes in Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), a deadly pediatric brain cancer while sparing normal cells in the brain. Dr. Tsai is being awarded an additional year of Fellowship to continue her exciting project.

Dr. Anand Bhagwat at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Dr. Anand’s project is to understand why treatments for patients with other blood cancers have not worked well for AML patients, a blood cancer that takes the lives of many children.

Since 2005, St. Baldrick’s has granted more than $326 million to support the development of childhood cancer treatments that have the potential to impact every kid diagnosed with cancer. The next round of St. Baldrick’s grants will be announced this summer.

To learn how you can get involved visit www.StBaldricks.org, and connect with St. Baldrick’s on Facebook, Twitter, and  YouTube. Check out our website to find a local event or consider making a donation.

About St. Baldrick’s Foundation  
Every 2 minutes, a child somewhere in the world is diagnosed with cancer. In the U.S., 1 in 5 will not survive. The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, the largest charity funder of childhood cancer research grants, is on a mission to Conquer Kids’ Cancer by supporting the most promising research to find cures and better treatments for all childhood cancers. When you give to St. Baldrick’s, you don’t just give to one hospital – you support virtually every institution with the expertise to treat kids with cancer across the U.S. St. Baldrick’s ensures that children fighting cancer now — and those diagnosed in the future — will have access to the most cutting-edge treatment, by supporting every stage of research, from new ideas in the lab to the training of the next generation of researchers, to lifesaving clinical trials. Visit StBaldricks.org and help #ConquerKidsCancer.