Cracking Neuroblastoma’s Code

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 and one that fights back against medicine. Dr. Shendy built a special tool that lets her watch these sneaky, drug-resistant cells in action, in real time!

As she studied these cells, Dr. Shendy found clues in something called genes.
Genes are like instruction books inside our cells. They tell the body how to grow, work and stay healthy. But sometimes, genes can act differently, especially in cancer cells.

Dr. Shendy identified five genes that might be helping cancer cells switch into the drug-resistant state. She also created the tools she needs to study what each of these genes does and how they might be stopped.

Next up: testing her ideas in animal models. If it works, this research could help doctors find better treatments that “reprogram” the resistant cancer cells and make them easier to treat, giving kids with neuroblastoma a better shot at recovery.

This is why early-stage research funding matters.

This is the power of philanthropic seed investing.

This is Rally.