A Lifeline for Discovery: How Rally Kept Neuroblastoma Research Alive

When government research funding ran out, the lab of John O’Bryan, Ph.D., at the Medical University of South Carolina faced a tough moment. Their important work on pediatric neuroblastoma, an aggressive childhood cancer, was at risk of stopping.

Then Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research stepped in with a grant that changed everything.

“Rally Foundation’s support was instrumental,” Dr. O’Bryan said. “It came at a critical time when we had no National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for this project. Without that support, we would not have been able to keep the research going.”

A Seed That Grew Into Discovery

Dr. O’Bryan has spent years studying a gene called RAS, which helps drive tumor growth in many cancers. While RAS mutations are rare in neuroblastoma, his team believed that RAS might still be involved in ways scientists didn’t yet understand.

Rally’s funding gave them the chance to test this bold idea. The results were groundbreaking:
• They found new ways that RAS might fuel neuroblastoma tumors.
• Their findings became the basis for a new scientific paper, which has already received positive early reviews.

“Rally’s funding allowed us to stay focused and productive,” Dr. O’Bryan said. “We used that support to do meaningful science that’s now being recognized by our peers.”

Why It Matters for Kids

Neuroblastoma is one of the hardest childhood cancers to treat when it comes back. Understanding how RAS works in these tumors could lead to new therapies that give kids a better chance to survive.

“These findings could have broader implications for understanding RAS signaling in childhood cancers,” Dr. O’Bryan explained. “We’re starting to see how these pathways might be targeted in ways that weren’t possible before.”

From One Grant to a Bigger Future 

Since Rally’s support, the project has gained more attention and funding, opening doors for new collaborations and discoveries.

When asked what he’d say to Rally donors, Dr. O’Bryan said:

“I would say thank you for believing in research when it’s still early and unproven. That’s when support matters most. You allowed us to keep going, and now we’re on the verge of something that could really make a difference.”

This is why early-stage research funding matters.

This is the power of philanthropic seed investing.

This is Rally.