Rally Foundation Announces More Than $1M for Independent Investigator Grants

Rally is thrilled to announce that $1,087,500 has been awarded through this year’s Independent Investigator Grants — supporting innovative research in the fight against childhood cancer!

But who exactly are these independent investigators?

Independent investigators are generally professors or faculty members who lead their own labs and drive forward big-picture ideas. As the principal investigators, they’re the ones developing ideas, designing the studies, mentoring young scientists and securing funding to keep the work moving.

Grants like these help them dig deeper, think bigger and push the science forward — taking discoveries in the lab to real-life treatments for kids battling cancer. We’re honored to support their work.

Meet this year’s Independent Investigator Grant recipients:

Brain and Central Nervous System Cancers

Funded by Rally Foundation

• University of Alabama at Birmingham: Rintaro Hashizume, M.D., Ph.D., for Targeting Lactate-dependent Transcription in Pediatric Glioma
• Institute Curie: Elaine Piaggio, Ph.D., for Optimizing Immunotherapies for Rhabdoid Tumors

Co-funded by Rally Foundation and a Collaborative Partner

• Johns Hopkins School of Medicine: Challice Bonifant, M.D., Ph.D., for B7-H3/CAR NK Cells as Therapy for Pediatric Brain Cancer, co-funded by Rally Foundation and The Truth 365
• The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia: Kristopher Bosse, M.D., for Development of GPC2 CAR T Cells for Pediatric CNS Tumors, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Kids Join the Fight
• Massachusetts General Hospital: Andrew Elia, M.D., Ph.D., for Targeting DNA Repair to Rescue CAR-T Exhaustion in Diffuse Midline Glioma, co-funded by Rally Foundation and The Truth 365
• University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center: Gregory Friedman, M.D., for Interrogation of Brain Tumor Immunophenotypes with Expansion Microscopy, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Kids Join the Fight
• Augusta University Research Institute: David Munn, M.D., for Novel Combination Immunotherapy for Pediatric Brain Tumors, co-funded by Rally Foundation and CureSearch for Children’s Cancer

Funded by a Collaborative Partner

• Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai: Oren Becher, M.D., for HBEGF as a novel therapeutic target in Diffuse Midline Glioma, funded by The Truth 365

Blood Cancers

Funded by Rally Foundation

• The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center: Michalis Agathocleous, Ph.D., for Discovery of a Metabolic Vulnerability in Pediatric T-ALL
• The Hospital for Sick Children: Grace Egan, M.D., Ph.D., for Targeting Ribosome Biogenesis in Childhood, Adolescent and Young Adult AML
• The Hospital for Sick Children: Lindsay Jibb, Ph.D., for Developing a Tool to Measure Parental Decisional Distress in Childhood ALL
• The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society: Gwen Nichols, M.D., for Real World Evidence Project
• Child Jesus Pediatric Hospital: Enrico Velardi, Ph.D., for Regeneration of Thymic Function to Enhance Cancer Immunotherapy

Co-funded by Collaborative Partners

• Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute: Ani Deshpande, Ph.D., for Targeting Chromatin Control of Leukemia Stem Cell Identity, co-funded by Infinite Love for Kids Fighting Cancer and the Luke Tatsu Johnson Foundation

Solid Tumors

Funded by Rally Foundation

• University of Colorado Denver: Michael Verneris, M.D., for When CAR T Cells Fall Short
• Emory University: Jason Yustein, M.D., Ph.D., for Targeting SUMOylation in Myc-driven Osteosarcoma

Funded by a Collaborative Partner

• Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles: Jinseok Park, Ph.D., for Spatial Molecular Heterogeneity Regulating Rhabdomyosarcoma Invasion, funded by Infinite Love for Kids Fighting Cancer

Mixed Brain / CNS, Solid Tumor and Blood Cancers

Funded by Rally Foundation

• Uganda Child Cancer Foundation: Racheal Angom, M.MED., for Enhancing Pediatric Cancer Care in Uganda with UCI-Ped-Reg and UCI-Ped-DASH
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Brian Crompton, M.D., for Development of a Liquid Biopsy Multi-Cancer Detection Assay for Pediatrics
• The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine: Giselle Saulnier Sholler, M.D., for Beat Childhood Cancer Research Consortium — BCC020 Clinical Trial Site Opening

Survivorship / Quality of Life / Psychosocial

Funded by Rally Foundation

• Emory University: Jordan Marchak, Ph.D., for Implementing Anxiety and Depression Screening for YA Survivors