For the Future
Last week, CancerFree KIDS announced 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 CFK started in 2002, with an investment of $10.85 million over 22 years.
During the holiday season, you can support the mission of CFK in a fun, new way! The Light the World Giving Machines, give shoppers at Kenwood Towne Centre the opportunity to donate to five local charities, including CancerFree KIDS, through special vending machines.
Located on on the first floor near Macy’s, shoppers can donate toward life-saving research, or buy a stuffed "Courage the Lion" or blankets to go to newly diagnosed children. One hundred percent of all donations go directly to the selected charity.
The Light the World Giving Machines, sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, started in 2017 and have raised more than $32 million for local and global charities. This year’s effort includes more than 100 locations around the world.
The grants made last week 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.
“We could not be more excited to make this investment into our community and help to transform these brilliant researcher’s ideas from potential into promise,” says said Jill Brinck, executive director of CancerFree KIDS. “We've seen firsthand how with our help, their groundbreaking ideas are launched into transformative therapies that are so desperately needed for children with cancer. Our kids deserve gentler and more effective treatments and we are honored to have the opportunity to make a difference for them and their families.”
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
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
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
"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."