11-21-2025 6:40pm

CancerFree KIDS Invests Record $1.65 million in Childhood Cancer Research

Beth Callahan Editor

Story and photo courtesy of Game Day Communications

LOVELAND, OH -- CancerFree KIDS will invest a record $1.65 million this year to fund innovative pediatric cancer research at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus. This milestone marks CancerFree KIDS’ largest single-year funding increase of $250,000, as well as the highest annual funding total in its 23-year history - including, for the first time ever, awarding $1 million to Cincinnati Children’s.

This year’s total also includes $650,000 for research projects at Nationwide Children’s, furthering CancerFree KIDS’ mission to find gentler, more effective treatments for childhood cancers. Since 2002, the organization has invested $12.5 million in early-stage research projects, fueling 265 new ideas with the potential to change outcomes for children and families.

The grants will once again support New Idea Awards, designed to fund bold concepts in the earliest stages of discovery, and Accelerator Awards, which allow researchers to continue promising work that has already demonstrated success.

“To be able to award $1 million to Cincinnati Children’s for the first time is a moment of pride and purpose for our organization,” said Jill Brinck, executive director of CancerFree KIDS. “Every dollar raised means more opportunities for researchers to explore new, less toxic treatments - and more hope for kids and families facing cancer.”

"Funding from CancerFree KIDS is crucial to progress," said Dr. Stella Davies, director of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Immune Deficiency at Cincinnati Children’s. "By investing in research in its critical early stages, CancerFree KIDS paves the way for researchers to explore ideas that they might never have the chance to pursue otherwise. The organization fills a unique need, one that drives innovation and allows for groundbreaking discoveries that hold the promise to bring more effective treatments to kids."

CancerFree KIDS 2025 Research Grant Investments

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center New Idea Awards

Project Title: Unraveling the role of RMND1 in polyamine depletion therapy for pediatric acute Myeloid leukemia
- Principal Investigator: Karina Elizabeth Jimenez Camacho, PhD
Project Title: Defining the role of IRAK4 signaling on LSC chromatin state
- Principal Investigator: Issac Choi
Project Title: Mechanism of Action for Targeting LARG-RhoA Signaling in Relapsed Neuroblastoma
- Principal Investigator: Yuan Lin
Project Title: Understanding the role of RAS mutations in resistance to menin inhibition in KMT2Ar pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML)
- Principal Investigator: Linde A. Miles, PhD
Project Title: Suppressing both inflammation and MEK to cure neurofibroma
- Principal Investigator: Nancy Ratner, PhD
Project Title: Targeting glutathione metabolism in pediatric AML
- Principal Investigator: Paula Saez Raez, BSc
Project Title: Splicing neoantigens as therapeutic targets in pediatric AML
- Principal Investigator: Nathan Salomonis, PhD
Project Title: Novel vulnerabilities in acute myeloid leukemia
- Principal Investigator: Zhe Wang
Project Title: Stopping Pediatric AML in Its Track by Dialing Down Inflammation in RUNX1-FPD Children
- Principal Investigator: Chen Wang, MD, PhD
Project Title: Identifying targets to overcome cisplatin resistance in pediatric liver cancer
- Principal Investigator: Peng V. Wu, MD, PhD

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center Accelerator Awards

Project Title: Therapeutic targeting of the gut microbiota-driven TIFA signaling in refractory AML
- Principal Investigator: Puneet Agarwal, PhD
Project Title: Understanding the Role of IGF2BP1 in Hematopoietic Ontogeny and Myeloid Leukemia Development in Infancy
- Principal Investigator: Lynn Lee, MD
Project Title: LINE-1-Mediated inflammaging in High-Risk Pediatric Cancers
- Principal Investigator: Kristie Ramos, MD
Project Title: CHAF1B degraders as a new first-in-class pediatric AML therapy
- Principal Investigator: Andrew Volk, PhD
Project Title: Small molecules targeting SOS1 allosteric site in KRAS-driven JMML
- Principal Investigator: Yi Zheng, PhD

Nationwide Children’s Hospital New Idea Awards

Project Title: Targeting LMP2A with an AAV-based TCR-mimic bispecific to treat EBV-associated cancers
- Principal Investigator: Abuzar Kaleem, PhD
Project Title: Metabolically targeting alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma to exploit novel therapeutic strategies
- Principal Investigator: Jie Li, PhD
Project Title: Overcoming rejection of allogeneic CAR-expressing immune cells using a novel HLA-targeting shRNA incorporated into the CAR construct
- Principal Investigator: Meisam Naeimi Kararoudi, DVM, PhD
Project Title: Combining the multi-kinase inhibitor brigatinib with the proteasome inhibitor ixazomib
- Principal Investigator: Janet Oblinger, PhD
Project Title: Decoding tumor heterogeneity at the mestatic bottleneck in osteosarcoma
- Principal Investigator: Kelly Gutpell, MD, PhD
Project Title: From Click to Insight: A Point-and-Click Computational Pipeline to Study How Rare Childhood Cancer Fusion Genes Rewire the Genome Using Zebrafish Models
- Principal Investigator: Cenny Taslim, PhD
Project Title: Targeting aberrant splicing and Rhabdomyosarcoma: a novel bichromatic MDM2 Reporter approach
- Principal Investigator: Chloe Nagasawa , PhD (OSU)

Nationwide Children’s Hospital Accelerator Awards

Project Title: Developing a novel Human IL-27-expressing oncolytic virus for malignant gliomas
- Principal Investigator: Alexia Martin
Project Title: Matrix-associated signals mediating growth and survival of osteosarcoma lung metastases
- Principal Investigator: Ryan Roberts, MD, PhD
Project Title: Dual-targeting of tumor and stroma using gene therapy based expression of tri-specific antibodies
- Principal Investigator: Julie Tomolonis, MD, PhD

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 novel 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.