12-04-2024 9:30pm

CancerFree KIDS Raises $1.4 Million for Research Grants

Beth Callahan Editor

Contributed by Game Day Communications

LOVELAND, OH -- CancerFree KIDS announces a record $1.4 million to be invested in 25 research grants at both Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus. The total brings the number of research projects funded to 240 since CancerFree KIDS started in 2002, with an investment of $10.85 million over 22 years.

This year, 22 of the grants will support New Idea awards, projects in their early stages that show innovation and promise of offering less invasive, more effective treatments for pediatric cancer. The remaining three are Accelerator awards, which go to past CancerFree KIDS New Idea award recipients to continue work on projects that have been exceptionally successful.

A total of $750,000 will go to projects at Cincinnati Children’s, including 11 New Idea awards (two at University of Cincinnati), and two Accelerator.

New Idea Awards:

Project Title: Targeting immune-checkpoint resistance in AML.
- Principal Investigator: Mohammad Azam, PhD

Project Title: Mechanisms underlying increased risk of hematological malignancy (HM) in sickle cell disease (SCD)
- Principal Investigator: Mengna Chi

Project Title: Defining the role of DPF2 mutations in Acute Myeloid Leukemia.
- Principal Investigator: H. Leighton Grimes, PhD

Project Title: Developing therapies targeting Pro-Caspase-1 in pediatric AML.
- Principal Investigator: Daniel Starczynowski, PhD (via Emma Uible BSc)

Project Title: Harnessing stemness to improve CAR T cell efficacy in pediatric leukemia therapy
- Principal Investigator: Fukun Guo, PhD

Project Title: To establish dMMR-deficient leukemic cell lines for use in FGS of small molecules target identification.
- Principal Investigator: Nicolas Nassar, PhD, Charles Dirr-Nims

Project Title: T cell-directed drug repurposing to prevent progression of nervous system sarcoma
- Principal Investigator: Jay Pundavela, PhD

Project Title: The use of LINE-1 as a novel biomarker and therapeutic target for pediatric cancers
- Principal Investigator: Kristie Ramos, MD

Project Title: Targeting CDC42 reshapes glioblastoma immune microenvironment to benefit immunotherapy.
- Principal Investigator: Yi Zheng, PhD

Accelerator Awards:

Project Title: Targeting CAR-T cells Immune-resistance in B-ALL
- Principal Investigator: Mohammad Azam, PhD

Project Title: Investigating recurrent PHIP mutations found in African ancestry Acute Myeloid Leukemia.
- Principal Investigator: Bailee N. Kain, PhD

University of Cincinnati:

New Idea Awards:

Project Title: Identify the impact of targeting DHODH on AML and immune surveillance
- Principal Investigator: Ola A. Elgamal, PhD

Project Title: Determining the role of leukemia pDC in AML
- Principal Investigator: Chia Sharpe, PhD

"CancerFree KIDS, over the last 20 years, have been extraordinarily successful in picking the right early projects, projects that otherwise would not get funded, and making that early investment is what allows it to work and grow,” said Dr. Stella Davies, Director of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Immune Deficiency at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. “So the success rate of CancerFree KIDS, in my opinion, is extraordinarily different than most organizations that fund research and that's because they are clever in how they pick, and where they put their money - and so you, you are clever on where you pick and put your money, so thank you."

“We are tremendously humbled by the generosity of our supporters at CancerFree KIDS,” said Jill Brinck, executive director of CancerFree KIDS. “Because of the record number of dollars raised, we will be able to fund important research to make the lives of our children better, and give them hope for the future.”

About CancerFree KIDS

CancerFree KIDS aims to find more effective and gentler treatments for childhood cancer by funding innovative research projects in the early stages of development. New ideas need money to grow, yet potential breakthrough treatment methods often go unfunded because pediatric cancer research is drastically limited. CancerFree KIDS provides grants to high-risk/high-reward childhood cancer research projects in these crucial early stages, which allows researchers to prove their concept, secure additional funding, and eventually create new treatments for kids. Learn more at cancerfreekids.org.