One Mission, 51 Childhood Cancer Researchers, $3.4 Million in Grants

Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research Awards $3.4 Million in Grants

This year, 51 researchers from 31 institutions across the country and worldwide will receive a total of $3.4 million in grants from Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research.

“Rally Foundation has now awarded $25.4 million in grants for childhood cancer research since we started in 2005,” says Dean Crowe, Founder and CEO. “From the beginning, our mission has been to fund the best research wherever it may be to help find better childhood cancer treatments with fewer long-term side effects and, ultimately, cures.”

Rally grants are awarded based on a competitive dual peer-review process conducted by Rally’s Medical Advisory Board, which is made up of 60 leading childhood cancer experts. These grants fund all levels of research, from science at the bench to translational, and they include second- and third-year fellows, young investigators, and independent investigators.

In addition, Rally encourages organizations to co-fund research projects together in the spirit of collaboration. “We all work to make a difference and give hope to kids and their families battling childhood cancer,” shares Crowe. In an effort to streamline the application process for researchers and foundations, Rally administers A Collaborative Pediatric Cancer Research Awards Program. Foundations that were part of this year’s collaboration include: The Truth 365, Kids Join The Fight, Infinite Love for Kids Fighting Cancer, CureSearch for Children’s Cancer and Luke Tatsu Johnson Foundation.

“We are so grateful to all who have taken the #RallyFit 46 Challenge, attended a Rally event, collected change through 4 Quarters 4 Research, asked for donations in lieu of birthdays gifts, or made charitable gifts to Rally through any of our programs,” said Crowe. “Every dollar matters. It could be the dollar that finds the cure.”

Recently, Rally received a perfect score of 100 from Charity Navigator for financial health and transparency, further encouraging Rally’s generous family of supporters who are thrilled that 93 cents of each donated dollar goes to support the mission.

Rally is proud to be funding the best and the brightest researchers. This year’s awards include 36 new grants and 15 continuation grants given to 10 Consortiums, 23 Independent Investigators, 7 Young Investigators, 9 Fellows and 2 Career Development Awards.

Brain and Central Nervous System Cancers

Funded by Rally Foundation

• Hospital for Sick Children: Dr. Cynthia Hawkins for Integrated Characterization of Disseminated Pediatric Low-Grade Glioma
• Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai: Dr. Gonzalo Pinero for CCL8/12-CCR2/5 Signaling in Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Dr. Joelle Straehla for Therapy-loaded Nanocarriers for Pediatric Diffuse Midline Glioma

Co-Funded by Rally Foundation and a Collaborative Partner

• Washington University in St. Louis: Dr. Mohamed Abdelbaki for Natural Killer Cells in Children with Recurrent Malignant Brain Tumors, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Kids Join the Fight
• The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia: Dr. Thomas De Raedt for Interneurons that BiTE: An Immunotherapy for High Grade Glioma, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Kids Join the Fight
• Governing Council of the University of Toronto: Dr. Patrick Gunning for Development of HDAC6 Inhibitors for Treatment of Pediatric Brain Cancers, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Kids Join the Fight
• Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago: Dr. Rintaro Hashizume for Targeted Inhibition of EZH2 and BET BRD4 for the Treatment of AT/RT, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Kids Join the Fight
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Dr. John Prensner for Oncogenic uORFs as the Next Frontier for Medulloblastoma Target Genes, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Kids Join the Fight
• The Hospital for Sick Children: Dr. Vijay Ramaswamy for New Therapies for Very High-Risk TP53 Mutant Medulloblastoma, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Kids Join the Fight
• The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia: Dr. Adam Resnick for Data Utilization Genetics Health Outcomes Translational Cell Biology Cancer Epidemiology Molecular Biology, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Kids Join the Fight
• National Brain Tumor Society: Dr. Kirk Tanner for The DNA Damage Response (DDR) Consortium, co-funded by Rally Foundation and The Truth 365
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Dr. Maria Trissal for Investigating the Role of PDGFRA in H3K27M Diffuse Midline Glioma Stem-cell, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Kids Join the Fight

Funded by a Collaborative Partner

• Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine: Dr. Michael Goldstein for Epigenetic Targeting of Radiation Resistance in Medulloblastoma, funded by The Truth 365

Blood Cancers

Funded by Rally Foundation

• St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital: Dr. Austin Boucher for Investigating the Mechanisms Driving the Myeloid Leukemia of Down Syndrome
• Children’s National Medical Center: Dr. Jinjun Cheng for Investigation HAVCR2 Germline Mutations in Pediatric SPTCLs
• The Regents of the University of Michigan: Dr. Mark Chiang for Notch-independent Transcriptional Circuits in ETP-ALL
• University of Colorado Denver: Dr. Eman Elsabbagh for Universal T-Cell Receptor (TCR) Targeting Pediatric Acute Myeloid Leukemia
• Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center: Dr. Brandon Hadland for Uncovering Relapse Mechanisms in High-risk Infant Leukemias
• Temple University: Dr. Christian Hurtz for DYRK1A is Required for the Survival of Pediatric KMT2A-Rearranged ALL
• Emory University: Dr. Cheng-Kui Qu for Targeting Leukemic Stem Cells in Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia
• Yale University: Dr. Xiaolei Su for Engineering High Efficiency CAR Ts for B Cell Cancer

Co-Funded by Rally and a Collaborative Partner

• Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute: Dr. Aniruddha Deshpande for Targeting Self Renewal in Pediatric Leukemia, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Luke Tatsu Johnson Foundation

Funded by a Collaborative Partner

• The University of California, San Francisco: Dr. Benjamin Huang for Integrated Transcriptomics and Proteomics to Identify Targets in AML, funded by The Truth 365

Solid Tumors

Funded by Rally Foundation

• University of Alabama, Birmingham: Dr. Elizabeth Beierle for Role of PIM3 Kinase in Metastatic Hepatoblastoma
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Dr. Anne-Florence Blandin for Liquid Biopsies for Pharmacodynamic Assessment of Neuroblastoma Therapy
• The Research Institute of Nationwide Children’s Hospital: Dr. Long-Sheng Chang for Combined elF4A and XPO1 Inhibition to Effectively Treat Osteosarcoma
• Dana-Farber Institute: Dr. Lindsay Fraizer for New Therapeutic Insights into Germ Cell Tumors by Exploring Age Differences
• Emory University: Dr. Andrew Hong for Role of FGF8 Splicing Variants into Propagating Wilms Tumor in Vitro
• Children’s Hospital Los Angeles: Dr. Miller Huang for Evaluating the Role of the Chromosome 17q Gain in Neuroblastoma
• National Cancer Institute, NIH NCI Center of Cancer Research Genetics: Dr. Yong Yean Kim for Identifying PAX3-FOXO1 Degraders of the Treatment of Rhabdomyosarcoma
• Duke University Medical Center: Dr. Corinne Linardic for Targeting CDK8 in Fusion-positive Rhabdomyosarcoma
• Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Foundation: Dr. Edward Prochownik for A Common Set of Genes that Mediate Transformation in Pediatric Liver Cancer
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Dr. Satyaki Sengupta for Tumor Lineage Dependent Regulation of NK Cell Function in Neuroblastoma
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Dr. Srinivas Viswanathan for Targeting TFE3 Fusions in Xp11.2 Translocation Renal Cell Carcinoma
• The University of Chicago: Dr. Samuel Volchenboum for Rally HIBiSCus Grant 2022
• The Hospital for Sick Children: Dr. Rosanna Weksberg for Early Wilms Tumor Diagnosis by Cell-free DNA in Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome
• Baylor College of Medicine: Dr. Jason Yustein for Dissecting and Targeting the WNT Pathway in Metastatic Osteosarcoma
• Emory University: Dr. Muxiang Zhou for Discovery of Novel MYCN Inhibitors of Therapy for Pediatric Neuroblastoma

Co-Funded by Rally and a Collaborative Partner

• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Dr. Brian Crompton for Targeting Kinase Signaling in Preclinical Models of Ewing Sarcoma, co-funded by Rally Foundation and The Truth 365
• Massachusetts General Hospital: Dr. David Langenau for Reversing Multi-drug Resistance in Rhabdomyosarcoma, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Infinite Love for Kids Fighting Cancer
• The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia: Dr. Erin Runbeck for Targeting PRAME with Peptide-centric CAR T Cells in Pediatric Malignancies, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Infinite Love for Kids Fighting Cancer
• Cleveland Clinic Foundation: Dr. Arun Singh for Local Chemotherapy of Retinoblastoma: A Novel Interventional Drug Delivery, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Infinite Love for Kids Fighting Cancer

Funded by a Collaborative Partner

• Emory University: Dr. Kelsey Jonus for Optimizing Allogeneic Gamma Delta T Cellular Therapy for Neuroblastoma, funded by Batcole Foundation

Survivorship / Quality of Life

Funded by Rally Foundation

• University of Alabama, Birmingham: Dr. Smita Bhatia for Enhancing 6MP Adherence in Adolescents with ALL: Strategy for Dissemination
• The Hospital for Sick Children: Dr. Lindsay Jibb for Building mHealth Capacity to Manage Pain in Young Children with Cancer

Palliative Care

Funded by Rally Foundation

• Emory University: Dr. Katherine Brock for Development and Pilot of a Telehealth Hospice Transition Intervention

Health Outcomes

Funded by Rally Foundation

• Emory University: Dr. Xu Ji for Assess Neighborhood Deprivation and Racial Segregation for Childhood Cancer
• Seattle Children’s Hospital: Dr. Brittany Lee for Caregiver Perspectives on Tumor Genomic Sequencing in Pediatric Oncology