Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation Announces Pediatric Oncology Student Training (POST) Grant Recipients

POST grant supports research of 50 undergraduate, graduate & medical student projects

In an effort to fund childhood cancer researchers at critical stages in their careers, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) has announced the awarding of 50 new Pediatric Oncology Student Training (POST) program grants to undergraduate, graduate and medical students across the country. The grants provide students who’ve shown an interest in pediatric oncology with the opportunity to train under a research mentor for the summer. The mentors, who are top researchers in the pediatric oncology field, provide students with hands on experience in the lab, encouraging them to pursue careers in the field.

The students receiving grants will work with their mentors at 24 different institutions across the country. ALSF more than doubled the number of students awarded POST Programs grants in 2016. Each student is awarded $5,000, dedicating at least eight full weeks to the program, either joining a research project underway in a mentor’s lab or beginning an original investigation. A list of the students receiving grants, their institutions and the title of their projects is included on the following page.

Introduced in 2011, the POST Program was created with four goals in mind: exposure to the field of pediatric oncology, development of practical research skills, experience in a real-time research project and development of a mentoring relationship with a pediatric oncology researcher. The Foundation’s primary focus is to find better treatments and ultimately cures for all kids with cancer. Recognizing the importance of young researchers in achieving this goal, ALSF aims to foster the interests in young, promising students through the POST program grants.

“Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation has always believed in the power of young people to make a difference in the lives of others,” said Jay Scott, Co-Executive Director of the Foundation. “The POST Program grant is simply an extension of this belief, showing college, medical and graduate students their power to change the course of childhood cancer treatments and cures. These students hold the key to future research breakthroughs and we are honored to support them.”

In addition to the POST Program grants, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation funds several other grant categories to researchers on the front lines of the childhood cancer fight. For more information, visit: www.ALSFgrants.org.

 

2016 Funded POST Program Grant Recipients

Students’ home institutions are listed in parentheses.

* Ten of the student grants are generously supported by the Northwestern Mutual Foundation.

* Bridget Deliberato (University of Cincinnati School of Medicine), Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH

Genetic Dissection of Cytogenetically Normal AML

* Kevin Dunne (University College Dublin), Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX

Investigating the Role of Nucleophosmin as a Novel Caspase-2 Target in Pediatric Leukemia

* Theodore Hansel (Harvey Mudd College), University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

Optimizing Conformation Disrupting Aurora Kinase Inhibitors to Treat MYCN Amplified Neuroblastoma

* Hyun (Monica) Kim (Boston University), Boston University, Boston, MA

Parental Perceptions of Sleep Quality in Children with Cancer

* Napasorn (Nina) Kuprasertkul (Duke University), Duke University, Durham, NC

Validating a Mouse Model of Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma

* Jaclyn Mueller (University of Toledo), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Studies of Invadopodia Formation in Ewing’s Sarcoma

* Anjali Oberoi (Boston University), Boston University, Boston, MA

Supporting Siblings of Children with Cancer through Community-Academic Partnerships

* Kavitha Subramanian (UCSD School of Medicine), Rady Children's Hospital/UC San Diego, San Diego, CA

Outcomes of Survivorship Care Plans in Pediatric Oncology: Does Health Literacy Matter?

* Kristen Suzich, (University of Maryland), Georgetown University, Washington, DC

Identification of Hypoxia-induced Pathways Driving Ewing’s Sarcoma Metastases

* Leah Underwood (University of Oklahoma), Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX              

RECQL4 Expression in RTS Patient Cells

Sumeet Aujla (St. George's University), University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA            

Investigation of Causal Germline Mutations in High Hyperdiploid ALL

Melanie Barbini (Northeastern University), University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA

Toxicity and Efficacy of Small Molecule Inhibitor AI-10-49 and Chemotherapy Drugs in the Treatment of Childhood Inv(16) AML

Alexandra Blumer (Drexel University School of Medicine), The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA

Genomic Studies in Pediatric AML

Flannery Bowman (Washington University), Washington University in St Louis, St. Louis, MO

A Cell-type Specific Checkpoint Limits Proliferation in Early B Cells

Benjamin Brenner (Purdue University), Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX

Optimizing a CD5 CAR Approach to Treat Children with T cell Leukemia and Lymphoma

Jackson Clark (New Mexico State University), Rockefeller University, New York, NY

Screening for Drugs to Cure the Pediatric Liver Cancer Fibrolamellar Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Caitlin Dalrymple (University of Virginia), University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA

Identification and Characterization of Selective MLL1 CXXC Domain Inhibitors

Oliver Dodd (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA           

Targeting CDK12 in Neuroblastoma Cells

Neil Dold (University of Maryland, College Park), University of Maryland, College Park, MD

Training in Pediatric Cancer Research: Targeting Tim-3

Gregory Fishberger (Washington University), Washington University in St Louis, St. Louis, MO               

Epigenetic Reprogramming for Cancer Therapy

Huizi (Holly) Guo (Johns Hopkins University), The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD

Targeting LIN28B in DIPG

Christy He (Drexel University College of Medicine), The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA

Assembling ALL and AML Cohorts to Analyze Center-Level Variations in Induction Mortality and Evaluate Treatment Strategies for Relapsed AML

Lauren Hricik (Thomas Jefferson University), The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA

Comparative Effectiveness of Antibacterial Prophylaxis During Induction Chemotherapy in Children with Down Syndrome and Acute Leukemia

Alisha Jamil (Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania), The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA

Defining Optimal Combination Drug Therapies in Neuroblastoma

Daniel Kingsley (Kent State University), CASE Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH

Site-specific Hyper-phosphorylation of IRF2BP2 Modulates Tumor PD-L1 Expression in Medulloblastoma

Elizabeth Kraeutler & Rachel Ottman (The University of Pennsylvania), The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA

Asymmetry and Tumor Formation in Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome

Hannah Lerner (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC

Understanding Weight Change in Adolescent Cancer Survivors

Samantha Linhares (University of Pennsylvania), The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA

Mechanisms of Resistance to the TRK-ALK-ROS1 Inhibitor Entrectinib in Neuroblastoma

Lauren Lipshutz (Drexel University College of Medicine), The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA

Social Attention in Pediatric Brain Tumor Survivors and Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Emily MacDuffie (Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University), Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA

Defining Genomic Consequences of Chromothripsis Using a CRISPR-based Chromosome Labeling System

Ari Morgenstern (University of Rochester, New York), Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX

Combining Oncolytic Adenovirus (OncAd) with Tumor Directed, Adenovirus-specific T-cells for the Treatment of Neuroblastoma: Effects of OncAds on Immunosuppressive Myeloid Cells

Antonio Muscarella (University of Pennsylvania), The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA

Identifying Factors Regulating CD19 Alternative Splicing in Pediatric B-ALL

Ashley Nguyen (Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University), Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA

Identification of FDA-approved Drugs that are Selectively Active Against Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells with Inactivating Mutations of TET2

Dakota Nollner (Duke University), University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT

Understanding SS18-SSX Chromatin Binding that Facilitates Synovial Sarcomagenesis

Jared Potter (University of Utah), University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT

Performing Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP) in a Mouse Model Expressing Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma (ASPSCR1-TFE3) to Understand Mechanisms of Cancer Progression

Christina Sharkey (Oklahoma State University), Children’s Research Institute, Washington, DC

Neurocognitive Assessments within COG: An Intensive, Integrated Model for Successfully Evaluating Children with High-Risk ALL

April Solon (Worcester Polytechnic Institute), University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA

Study the Activity of Small Molecule Inhibitor AI-10-49 in Combined Treatment of Childhood Inv(16) AML

Colin Sperring (University of Michigan), University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

Establishment and Validation of an IPS-based Neuroblastoma Model

Ulrik Kristoffer Stoltze (University of Copenhagen), St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN

ETV6 and Childhood ALL Predisposition

Megan Sulciner (University of Minnesota), Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA

Control of Medulloblastoma through the Regulation of Tumor Debris

Nimisha Swali (Northeast Ohio Medical University/ Kent State University), CASE Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH

To Examine the Role of CDK5 in T-cell Leukemia in Altering a Tumor's Ability to Seed CNS or Altering Immune Sensitivity to the Host's Immune System

Justin Thomas (Johns Hopkins University), The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD

RUNX1 Control of the CEBPA Enhancer as a Target of Myeloid Transformation

Umberto Tosi (Weill Cornell Medical College), Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY

A Novel Drug Delivery Method for the Treatment of Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma

Nishanth Uli (Ohio State University), Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO

A Computational Analysis of Altered Chromatin Structure and Hematopoietic Development in Infant Leukemia

Sabrina Wang (Johns Hopkins University), The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD

Targeting Notch in Embryonal Tumors

John Warrington (University of South Carolina), The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA

Investigating the Mechanism of Internalization of the M610-IGF2 Complex

Tamar Witztum (University of Bristol), University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

Genetic Predisposition to Atypical Teratoid/Rhabdoid Tumor Caused by Mutations in SWI/SNF Complex Genes

Andrew Woods (Children's Cancer Therapy Development Institute), Children's Cancer Therapy Development Institute, Portland, OR

Functional Genomics Landscape of Anaplastic Wilms’ Tumor

Alice Yu (University of Pennsylvania), The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA

Mechanism of Tumor Formation in Familial Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome

Colburn Yu (The Johns Hopkins University), The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD

Incorporating Cancer Vaccines with Chemotherapy for the Treatment of Osteosarcoma