Rally Foundation Awards $5M for a Record Number of Grants to 74 Childhood Cancer Researchers

Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research Awards $5M in 2024

In 2024, Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research (Rally) will award a total of $5 million to 74 researchers across 34 institutions worldwide – the largest number of childhood cancer research grants ever to be distributed since Rally was founded in 2005.

“This brings the total amount of research funds that Rally has awarded to $35 million – and it is the highest amount we have been able to award in one year,” says Dean Crowe, Founder and CEO. “In 2023, we were delighted by the significant increase in funds raised thanks to our grassroot supporters, special events and incredibly generous corporate donors. Our mission speaks to all: empower volunteers and fund the best research wherever it may be to help find better childhood cancer treatments with fewer long-term side effects and, ultimately, cures.”

Rally grants are awarded based on a competitive dual peer-review process conducted by Rally’s Medical Advisory Board, which is made up of leading childhood cancer experts. The grants fund all levels of research, from science at the bench to translational, and they include fellows, young investigators and independent investigators.

Rally encourages other childhood cancer organizations to collaborate and co-fund research projects together, and successfully administers A Collaborative Pediatric Cancer Research Awards Program. To streamline the application process for researchers and foundations, organizations that were part of this year’s Collaboration include The Truth 365, Infinite Love for Kids Fighting Cancer, Kids Join the Fight, Luke Tatsu Johnson Foundation, The Osteosarcoma Institute, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and CureSearch for Children’s Cancer. Rally is also working with Infinite Love for Kids Fighting Cancer for Outside the Box Grants that will be announced in the late summer of 2024.

“We are so grateful to all who have taken the #RallyFit47 Challenge, attended a Rally signature event like Rally On the Runway or the annual Rally Benefit Bash, collected change through 4 Quarters 4 Research, asked for donations in lieu of birthday gifts, or made charitable gifts to Rally through any of our programs,” said Crowe. “Every dollar matters. It could just be that dollar that finds the cure!”

Rally has twice received a perfect score of 100 from Charity Navigator for its financial health and transparency, further encouraging Rally’s generous family of supporters who are assured to know that 93 cents of every dollar donated goes towards supporting the mission. Rally is on pace to receive another perfect score.

Rally is proud to be funding the best and the brightest researchers. This year’s awards include 74 grants given to 14 Consortiums, 30 Independent Investigators, 10 Young Investigators, 11 Fellows, 8 Career Development Awards and 1 Outside the Box Award.

Career Development Awards

Funded by Rally Foundation

• Columbia University: Dr. Robyn Gartrell for Effect of Radiation and CD47 on Microglia in Diffuse Midline Glioma (DMG)
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Dr. Riaz Gillani for a Mechanistic & Computational Interrogation of DNA Damage in Ewing Sarcoma
• Children’s Hospital Medical Center: Dr. Courtney Jones for Targeting Metabolic Vulnerabilities in Pediatric Acute Myeloid Leukemia
• The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia: Dr. Jennifer Kalish for Pediatric Liver Cancer Formation in Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome
• Medical University of South Carolina: Dr. Casey Langdon for Converging on AKT and XPO1 Dependency in Select Pediatric Cancers
• Baylor College of Medicine: Dr. Jeremy Schraw for Integrating Epidemiology and Genomics to Characterize Rare Childhood Tumors
• The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center: Dr. Tao Yue for Leveraging the Immune System for the Treatment of Metastatic Osteosarcoma

Co-funded by Rally Foundation and a Collaborative Partner

• Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center: Dr. Michael Ortiz for Clinical Translation of an XPO1 Dependency in Select Pediatric Solid Tumors, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Infinite Love for Kids Fighting Cancer

Outside The Box Grant

Funded by Rally Foundation

• Johns Hopkins University: Dr. Stavroula Sofou for Alpha-particle Radio-immunotherapy for Pediatric Glioblastoma

Brain and Central Nervous System Cancers

Funded by Rally Foundation

• Children’s Research Institute: Dr. Hayk Barseghyan for Deciphering the Structural Complexities of Pediatric Low-Grade Gliomas
• University of Alabama at Birmingham: Dr. Rintaro Hashizume for Targeting Lactate-dependent Transcription in Pediatric Glioma
• The Hospital for Sick Children: Dr. Annie Huang for Molecular Prognosticators for Rare Embryonal Brain Tumors in the HS4 Trial
• Albert Einstein College of Medicine: Dr. George Karagiannis for Promoting Thymocyte Egress to Prevent Chemotherapy-Related Immunotoxicity
• Leland Stanford Junior University: Dr. Thien Nguyen for Macropinocytosis as a Novel Target for Pediatric Brain Cancer Therapy
• The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia: Dr. Adam Resnick for Children’s Brain Tumor Network: Accelerating Discovery & Clinical Trials
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Dr. Jessica Tsai for Dissecting FOXR2-mediated Oncogenesis in Diffuse Midline Gliomas

Co-funded by Rally Foundation and a Collaborative Partner

• Baylor College of Medicine: Dr. Jamie Anastas for Targeting the SAGA Chromatin Regulatory Complex in DMG, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Kids Join the Fight
• The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia: Dr. Aashim Bhatia for 3D Magnetic Resonance Elastography of Pediatric Brain Tumors, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Kids Join the Fight
• Seattle Children’s Hospital: Dr. Myron Evans for Targeting the CDK8 Kinase Module in MYC-amplified Medulloblastoma, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Kids Join the Fight
• University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center: Dr. Gregory Friedman for Interrogation of Brain Tumor Immunophenotypes with Expansion Microscopy, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Kids Join the Fight
• Emory University: Dr. Adam Goldman-Yassen for Quantitative CEST MRI to Evaluate Pediatric Brain Tumors, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Kids Join the Fight
• Emory University: Jorge Jimenez Macias for Elucidating the Vascular Biology of RTK-mutant Pediatric High-grade Gliomas, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Kids Join the Fight
• SonALAsense, Inc.: Dr. Stuart Marcus for A Phase 1/2 Study of Sonodynamic Therapy Using SONALA-001 and Exablate 4000, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Kids Join the Fight
• Augusta University Research Institute: Dr. David Munn for Novel Combination Immunotherapy for Pediatric Brain Tumors, co-funded by Rally Foundation and CureSearch for Children’s Cancer
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Dr. Tom Rosenberg for Multi-arm study of novel therapies for children with recurrent ATRT, co-funded by Rally Foundation and The Truth 365
• Princess Maxima Center for Pediatric Oncology: Dr. Jasper van der Lugt for Gut Microbiome Signatures of DIPG/DMG Patients Enrolled in PNOC022 Protocol, co-funded by Rally Foundation and the DIPG DMG Research Funding Alliance

Blood Cancers

Funded by Rally Foundation

• St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital: Dr. Austin Boucher for Investigating Cohesin Mutations in the Myeloid Leukemia of Down Syndrome
• Leland Stanford Junior University: Dr. Kara Davis for BCL2 and Immunotherapy Targeting to Improve Outcomes for Infant ALL
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Dr. Jana Ellegast for Exploiting Inflammatory Signaling in Childhood Leukemia
• Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences: Dr. Daniel Herranz for the Role of Glutamine Synthetase as a Therapeutic Target in Pediatric T-ALL
• Children’s Hospital Medical Center: Dr. Courtney Jones for Targeting Metabolic Vulnerabilities in Pediatric Acute Myeloid Leukemia
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Dr. Brigit Knoechel for Interrogating T-cell Subsets and their Role for Treatment Response in T-ALL
• The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia: Dr. Susan McClory for Molecular Drivers of Long-term CAR T Cell Response in Patients with B-ALL
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Dr. Yana Pikman for Precision Medicine for Pediatric Acute Leukemia
• Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai: Dr. Miguel Quijada-Alamo for Unravelling Novel Genetic Dependencies of CRLF2-rearranged Childhood B-ALL
• Baylor College Medicine: Dr. Rachel Rau for HTS of the Ig loci for Refined Risk Stratification in Pediatric B-ALL
• Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai: Dr. David Dominguez-Sola for Metabolic targets for Burkitt Lymphoma Therapy

Co-Funded by Rally Foundation and a Collaborative Partner

• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Dr. Basudev Chowdhury for Targeting BRD9 in RUNX1-fusion-driven Pediatric Acute Leukemia, co-funded by Rally Foundation and The Truth 365
• Johns Hopkins University: Dr. Linda Resar for Targeting HMGA1 Enhancers in MLL-r Pediatric Leukemia, co-funded by Rally Foundation and the Luke Tatsu Johnson Foundation
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Dr. Kimberly Stegmaier for New Therapies for Pediatric Acute Myeloid Leukemia, co-funded by Rally Foundation and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

Co-funded by Collaborative Partners

• Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute: Dr. Ani Deshpande for Targeting Chromatin Control of Leukemia Stem Cell Identity, co-funded by Infinite Love for Kids Fighting Cancer and the Luke Tatsu Johnson Foundation

Solid Tumors

Funded by Rally Foundation

• Children’s Hospital Medical Center: Dr. Roshni Dasgupta for Assessing Image-Defined Risk Factors in Children with Neuroblastoma
• University of Wurzburg: Dr. Stefan Ebert for CAR-T Cells Armed with a Bi-specific Killer Engager (BiKE) and IL15
• Children’s National Medical Center and Children’s Research Institute: Dr. Adriana Fonseca for Clinical and Molecular Characterization of DICER1-mutant CNS Sarcomas
• The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia: Dr. Anna Maria Giudice for Investigating the Intersection of CAR T Cells and EVs in Neuroblastoma
• The University of California, San Francisco: Dr. Amanda Marinoff for Advancing Precision Oncology in Osteosarcoma
• Johns Hopkins University: Dr. Patience Odeniyide for Identifying Drivers of Treatment Resistance in HRAS-mutant Rhabdomyosarcoma
• Johns Hopkins University: Dr. Christine Pratilas for Deconvoluting Mechanisms of Resistance to SHP2 Inhibition in NF1-MPNST
• Johns Hopkins University: Dr. Christine Pratilas for Molecularly Targeted Therapies for Fusion-negative Rhabdomyosarcoma
• Jude Children’s Research Hospital: Dr. Noha Shendy for Interrogating the Neuroblastoma Chemoresistant Cellular State
• The Rockefeller University: Dr. Sanford Simon for Genome Wide Association Studies in Fibrolamellar Carcinoma
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Dr. Srinivas Viswanathan for Targeting the Oxidative Stress Response in TFE3 Fusion Cancers
• University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center: Dr. Danh Truong for Investigating the Spatial Heterogeneity and Cellular Taxonomy of DSRCTs
• The Hospital for Sick Children: Dr. Jonathan Wasserman for Outcomes of Childhood-onset Thyroid Cancer from a Multinational Consortium
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Dr. Nina Weichert-Leahey for Epigenetic Reprograming of Neuroblastoma Enhances Differentiation
• Emory University: Dr. Jason Yustein for Targeting SUMOylation in Myc-driven Osteosarcoma

Co-funded by Rally Foundation and a Collaborative Partner

• Baylor College of Medicine: Dr. Atreyi Dasgupta for Tumor Derived Extracellular Vesicle in Preparation of Lung Metastatic Niche, co-funded by Rally Foundation and The Truth 365
• Jude Children’s Research Hospital: Dr. Ian Delahunty for Capitalizing on Functional Genomics with Targeted Protein Degradation, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Infinite Love for Kids Fighting Cancer
• Emory University: Dr. Kelsey Jonus for Driving Tumor Infiltration and Persistence of gd T Cell Therapies for Neuroblastoma, co-funded by Rally Foundation and CureSearch for Children’s Cancer
• University of California Los Angeles: Dr. John Lee for IL-18 armored STEAP1 CAR T cell therapy for Ewing sarcoma, co-funded by Rally Foundation and CureSearch for Children’s Cancer
• National Cancer Institute Center for Cancer Research: Dr. David Milewski for TCR-based Immunotherapy Against Pediatric Rhabdomyosarcoma, co-funded by Rally Foundation and The Truth 365
• Emory University: Dr. Jason Yustein for Use of Combinatorial Therapies to Improve Immune-mediated Approaches for High-risk Osteosarcoma, co-funded by Rally Foundation and The Osteosarcoma Institute
• The University of Texas Southwestern: Dr. Yanbin Zheng for Ectopic PLAG1 Plus Loss of p53 Drives Rhabdomyosarcoma, co-funded by Rally Foundation and Infinite Love for Kids Fighting Cancer

Mixed Brain/CNS, Solid Tumor and Blood Cancers

Funded by Rally Foundation

• Boston Children’s Hospital: Dr. Alan Cantor for RNA-based Sensor Treatment of Fusion Molecule Driven Pediatric Malignancies
• University Children’s Hospital Wurzburg: Dr. Ignazio Caruana for Restoration of the Autophagy Machinery in Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cells
• Oncoheroes Biosciences: Dr. Cesare Spadoni for Ein Herz für Kinder INFORM2 VolVin
• BC Cancer, part of the Provincial Health Services Authority: Dr. Haifeng Zhang for Immunotherapeutic Targeting of IL1RAP in Rare Pediatric Cancers

Survivorship / Quality of life / Data science

Funded by Rally Foundation

• Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center: Dr. Neel Bhatt for Feasibility and Acceptability of a Return to School Intervention
• Emory University: Dr. Alexandra Cathcart for Barriers to Accessing Medicaid Services in Children Diagnosed with Cancer
• University Center Hospital Sainte-Justine: Dr. Hallie Coltin for Risk of Adverse Mental Health Sequelae in Fathers of Children with Cancer
• Emory University: Dr. Jonathan Ebelhar for Spiritual Distress in Adolescents and Young Adults with Advanced Cancer
• Children’s Research Institute: Dr. Jennifer Levine for Unpacking Insurance Coverage for Fertility Preservation
• Baylor College of Medicine: Dr. Casey McAtee for Eliminating Abandonment of Pediatric Cancer Therapy in Malawi
• Seattle Children’s Hospital: Dr. Timothy Ohlsen for Financial Toxicity and Development of a Caregiver-reported Outcome Measure
• The University of Chicago: Dr. Samuel Volchenboum for D4CG/PCDC Project Manager