Disrupting Cancer at Its Core: Rally’s Early Investment in Life-Saving Discovery

In 2018, Muxiang Zhou, MD, at Emory University School of Medicine received early research funding from Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research. That support helped launch discoveries that are bringing new hope to children with hard-to-treat cancers. 

Dr. Zhou studies childhood cancer and searches for biomarkers, special clues in the body that show how cancer is growing. His work focuses on creating new medicines for kids with neuroblastoma and acute myeloid leukemia, especially when standard treatments stop working. 

With Rally Foundation’s support, his team began building tiny drug-like molecules designed to weaken cancer cells. These compounds target three powerful proteins that help cancer survive: 

• MDM2 helps cancer cells avoid dying.
• MYCN tells cancer cells to grow faster (especially important in neuroblastoma).
• XIAP blocks the body’s natural “self-destruct” signals in cancer cells.

These proteins act like bodyguards for cancer. Dr. Zhou’s goal is to block them so tumors slow down or stop growing. 

Because Rally believed early, his team secured two large National Institutes of Health grants to continue this work. 

Key discoveries: 

• 2019: They found a compound called AQ-101 that blocks MDM2 and slowed cancer growth in mice.
• 2022: They showed how MDM2 and MYCN work together to help cancer grow.
• 2023: They created new medicines that block both MDM2 and XIAP and showed strong results against childhood neuroblastoma and acute myeloid leukemia.
• 2024: They discovered an MDM2 degrader, which is a drug that helps destroy MDM2 instead of just blocking it. This killed leukemia cells while causing very little harm to healthy cells.

Dr. Zhou published these findings so other scientists can build on this work. 

Rally’s early support helped turn bold ideas into real science, uncovering new cancer targets and promising drug candidates. 

This is why early-stage research funding matters.
This is the power of philanthropic seed investing.
This is Rally.