Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation Announces 2016 Epidemiology Grant Recipients 

The Epidemiology Grant provides critical funding to researchers at University of California Berkeley and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia studying epidemiological characteristics.

Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF), a nonprofit dedicated to finding cures for all children with cancer, awarded two 2016 Epidemiology Grants to Catherine Metayer, MD/PhD and Steve Selvin, PhD of the University of California Berkeley and Alix Seif, MD of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The Epidemiology Grant, worth $200,000 over the course of two years, provides critical funding to shed light on basic epidemiological characteristics of childhood cancer that are not yet understood.

Drs. Metayer and Selvin will examine a correlation between early-life radiation exposures from medical imaging (like x-rays and CT scans) and childhood leukemia risk. Results of the study will provide resources to weigh the risks and benefits of medical imaging and improve prevention of childhood leukemia.

Dr. Seif will study whether children with leukemia who develop severe infections are less likely to relapse than children without infections. Results from the study would support developing clinical trials of immune stimulating drugs, which would offer new options to children who currently have no available immune therapy.

Designed to support investigators who focus specifically on the epidemiology, early detection or prevention of childhood cancers, the Epidemiology Grant funds hypothesis-driven projects that work to improve the public’s understanding of pediatric cancer. This grant is a part of the Foundation’s Accelerator Programs, which work to advance the pace of innovative research. These projects have been deemed highly important, but have not received National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. ALSF takes calculated risks to fund these proposals, resulting in high impact findings.

Research funded by ALSF has been featured in The New England Journal of Medicine, Blood, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Molecular Therapy, AACR Journal, Oncogene, Nature and more. In addition to the Epidemiology Grant, ALSF funds several other grant categories. For more information, visit www.ALSFgrants.org.