Kids with Down syndrome are 20 times more likely to get a type of blood cancer called acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Sadly, they also have a harder time with the side effects from treatment. But thanks to early funding from Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research, one scientist decided to change that and he’s making real progress. John D. Crispino, Ph.D., was a researcher at Northwestern University when he received his first Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research grant in...

When kids get cancer, doctors and scientists work hard to find new and better treatments. But every big discovery starts with seed funding, the first crucial investment that helps scientists test bold ideas. That’s exactly what happened with Christian Hurtz, Ph.D. Between 2019 and 2022, Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research provided seed funding to support Dr. Hurtz’s research. This funding was a game-changer. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when many labs had to stop work, Rally...

Neuroblastoma is a hard-to-treat cancer that mostly affects kids. One of the biggest challenges is that some of the cancer cells learn to resist treatment, like chemotherapy, and that makes the cancer even harder to beat. With a research grant from Rally Foundation, Noha Shendy, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, is aiming to figure out how cancer cells do this. She discovered that these cells can actually switch between two states: one that’s easy to treat...

April Weissmiller, Ph.D., is a scientist who wants to help kids with cancer. Thanks to receiving grant funding from Rally Foundation during her time at Vanderbilt University and now at Middle Tennessee State University, she studied a tiny part of our cells called WDR5. It turns out WDR5 helps cancer cells grow. Dr. Weissmiller asked a big question: What if we block WDR5? Could that stop the cancer? With help from Rally, she tested it, and it worked! When she blocked WDR5, the cancer cells...

Did you know scientists can use viruses to fight cancer? It sounds wild, but it’s real. Eleanor Chen, M.D., Ph.D., is a researcher at the University of Washington who studies a tough childhood cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma. This cancer grows in soft tissues, like muscles. It can be very hard to treat, especially when a protein called RAS mutates. When that happens, RAS tells cancer cells to grow like crazy, and not stop. Thanks to early research funding from Rally Foundation, Dr. Chen and her...

At Rally Foundation, we believe that one discovery can change everything and sometimes, all it needs is a seed.  From 2007 to 2015, we served as philanthropic seed investors in the work of Dr. Jackie Kraveka, D.O., at the Medical University of South Carolina. With early, critical funding from Rally, Dr. Kraveka led groundbreaking preclinical studies focused on a tough childhood cancer: neuroblastoma.  Neuroblastoma is a cancer that starts in immature nerve cells, most often in the adrenal...