Rally Foundation Announces More Than $1M for Independent Investigator Grants

Rally is thrilled to announce that $1,250,000 has been awarded through this year’s Independent Investigator Grants, supporting innovative research in the fight against childhood cancer!

But who exactly are these independent investigators?

Independent investigators are generally professors or faculty members who lead their own labs and drive forward big-picture ideas. As the principal investigators, they’re the ones developing ideas, designing the studies, mentoring young scientists and securing funding to keep the work moving.

Grants like these help them dig deeper, think bigger and push the science forward — taking discoveries in the lab to real-life treatments for kids battling cancer. We’re honored to support their work.

Meet this year’s Independent Investigator Grant recipients:

Brain and Central Nervous System Cancers

Funded by Rally Foundation

• Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai: Oren Becher, M.D., for HBEGF as a Novel Therapeutic Target in Diffuse Midline Glioma
• The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia: Kristopher Bosse, M.D., for Development of GPC2 CAR T Cells for Pediatric CNS Tumors
• Murdoch Children’s Research Institute: David Eisenstat, M.D., for Developmental Targeting the Cell-of-Origin of Pediatric High Grade Glioma
• Children’s Hospital Los Angeles: Anat Erdreich-Epstein, M.D., Ph.D. for Immune Targets Uncovered by DNA Hypomethylation in H3K27M Pediatric Glioma
• The University of California, San Francisco: Winson Ho, M.D., for Targeting PP2A in Medulloblastoma Using Lipid Nanoparticle
• Institute Curie: Elaine Piaggio, Ph.D., for Optimizing Immunotherapies for Rhabdoid Tumors

Co-funded by Rally Foundation and a Collaborative Partner

• Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine: Challice Bonifant, M.D., Ph.D., for B7-H3/CAR NK Cells as Therapy for Pediatric Brain Cancer, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Arms Wide Open Childhood Cancer Foundation
• Massachusetts General Hospital: Andrew Elia, M.D., Ph.D., for Targeting DNA Repair to Rescue CAR-T Exhaustion in Diffuse Midline Glioma, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Arms Wide Open Childhood Cancer Foundation

Blood Cancers

Funded by Rally Foundation 

• The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center: Michalis Agathocleous, Ph.D., for Discovery of a Metabolic Vulnerability in Pediatric T-ALL
• The Hospital for Sick Children: Grace Egan, Ph.D., for Targeting Ribosome Biogenesis in Childhood, Adolescent and Young Adult AML
• Emory University: Christopher Porter, M.D., for Siglec15 Promotes Ineffective Emergency Myelopoiesis in B ALL
• Emory University: Sunil Raikar, M.D., for Bioengineering a Novel Humanized l-asparaginase with Reduced Toxicity
• Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope: Srividya Swaminathan, Ph.D., for Designing Natural Killer Cells as Living Drugs for High-risk Pediatric ALL
• Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù: Enrico Velardi, Ph.D., for Regeneration of Thymic Function to Enhance Cancer Immunotherapy 

Co-funded by Rally Foundation and a Collaborative Partner

• Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine: Yiouli Panayiota Ktena, M.D., for Pharmacologic CCR9 Inhibition to Mitigate Graft-vs-Host Disease, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Infinite Love for Kids Fighting Cancer

Solid Tumors

Funded by Rally Foundation 

• St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital: Mark Hatley, M.D., Ph.D., for Dissection and Targeting NET Release in DICER1 Cancer Predisposition
• Yale University: Juan Vasquez, M.D., for CBX12 in Pediatric Solid Tumors
• University of Colorado Denver: Michael Verneris, M.D., for When CAR T Cells Fall Short
• Duke University School of Medicine: Greg Wang, Ph.D., for Targeting Epigenetic Dependency as Treatment of Childhood Synovial Sarcoma
• Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine: Lindy Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., for Evaluating the Combination of Targeted Therapies and Immunotherapy in MPNST

Co-funded by Rally Foundation and a Collaborative Partner

• Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis: Angela Hirbe, M.D., Ph.D., for Defining the Surfaceome of EWSR1-KLF15 Myoepithelial Carcinoma, co-funded by Rally Foundation and cureMEC
• National Cancer Institute, Center for Cancer Research: Jun Wei, Ph.D., for Optimization of Humanized anti-FGFR4-exatecan ADC for Clinical Translation, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Mighty Mille Foundation

Mixed Brain/CNS, Solid Tumor and Blood Cancers

Funded by Rally Foundation

• Uganda Child Cancer Foundation: Racheal Angom, MMED, for Enhancing Pediatric Cancer Care in Uganda with UCI-Ped-Reg and UCI-Ped-DASH 

Survivorship / Quality of Life / Psychosocial

Funded by Rally Foundation

• Emory University: Brooke Cherven, Ph.D., for Reproductive Health Outcomes in Childhood Cancer Survivors
• Emory University: Jordan Marchak, Ph.D., for Implementing Anxiety & Depression Screening for YA Survivors