In 2016, Kimberly Stegmaier, M.D., at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute received early research funding from Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research. That support allowed her team to explore a bold question. Could turning off two important enzymes, SHMT1 and SHMT2, slow down or even stop T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a type of childhood blood cancer that is very hard to treat when it returns?  Dr. Stegmaier and her team tested a compound called RZ-2994 that blocks both SHMT1 and...

When Angela Waanders, M.D., M.P.H, was just beginning her research career at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research awarded her a $20,000 seed grant to help answer a big, urgent question:  Why did the same cancer drug help some kids' brain tumors but make others worse?  Dr. Waanders was studying a gene called BRAF, which helps control how cells grow. When BRAF mutates, it can lead to cancer. Her research focused on two different types of BRAF...

When your child is diagnosed with cancer, everything changes. Families face long hospital stays, tough treatments and overwhelming emotions. That’s where supportive care comes in and thanks to Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research, one doctor’s vision is now helping kids and families across the country.  Katharine Brock, a palliative care doctor at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and researcher at Emory University, received early research funding from Rally Foundation from 2016-2019...

Did you know that some medicines are so smart they can go right to the bad stuff and leave the good stuff alone? That’s exactly what Xiaoyang Wu, Ph.D., at the University of Chicago has been working on, and it could help kids with cancer feel better, faster.  Dr. Wu got early research funding from the Rally Foundation in 2024. That grant helped him and his team test something amazing in the lab: super-tiny particles called nanoparticles that can carry cancer-fighting medicine straight to the...

Brain cancer is scary, especially when it affects kids. A group of brain cancers, called pediatric high-grade gliomas, are both common and hard to treat. But thanks to funding from Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research, Renee Read, Ph.D., a scientist at Emory University, is doing something about it.  Dr. Read’s research focuses on finding weak spots in these tough brain tumors, kind of like finding a secret button that makes the bad guys disappear.  What She Discovered  Dr. Read and...

Dr. David Loeb, M.D., Ph.D., from the Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center, has dedicated his career to finding better treatments for children with sarcoma, a type of childhood cancer. Early support from Rally Foundation helped him take the first big steps in his research journey. In 2012, Dr. Loeb received his first Rally grant. This funding helped him study how Ewing sarcoma cancer cells use energy differently than healthy cells. Those first experiments led to important...