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Center of Excellence Grants

The Centers of Excellence (COE) program funds selected leading childhood cancer institutions with programs committed to developing and conducting early phase clinical trials for childhood cancer and with a pediatric oncology clinical pharmacology/developmental therapeutics program. The ultimate goal of this program is to expedite the development of novel therapeutic approaches for pediatric malignancies by establishing more robust Centers of Excellence in pediatric cancer drug development and through training the next generation of leaders in preclinical and clinical drug development. Fifty percent of the funds are used to enhance the Center’s clinical trial infrastructure. The remaining fifty percent is used to support the training of physician scholars in drug development. 

The ALSF Centers of Excellence work together to run collaborative clinical trials efficiently and purposefully across their institutions.  With the broad support from ALSF, they are able provide clinical trial options to hundreds of patients each year.

This grant is no longer offered.

Dana-Farber/Children’s Hospital Cancer Center Developmental Therapeutics Center of Excellence

Project Update (December 2019)

With support from the ALSF Center of Excellence grant, Dr. Steven Dubois at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute led a clinical trial for larotrectinib, a drug for treating pediatric cancers with the NTRK fusion gene. The clinical trial led to the FDA approval of larotrectinib in December 2018. Read more on the ALSF blog.

Principal Investigator Name: 

Steven DuBois, MD & Wendy London, PhD - Scholars: Melissa Burns, MD; Kevin Campbell, MD; Natalie Collins, MD/PhD; David Shulman, MD

Project Title: 

Dana-Farber/Children’s Hospital Cancer Center Developmental Therapeutics Center of Excellence

Year Awarded: 

2012

Cancer Research Category: 

Category of Grant: 

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe: 

Institution: 

Center of Excellence in Childhood Cancer Drug Development and Clinical Pharmacology at CHOP

Developing new therapies for infants, children, adolescents and young adults with cancer requires a well-trained, dedicated multidisciplinary team. Physicians and scientists at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Division of Oncology and Center for Childhood Cancer Research are collaborating to develop new therapies for cancer. We are dedicated to improving our understanding of the biology and genomics of childhood cancer, developing better preclinical models, evaluating new drugs, and improving the efficiency and conduct of clinical trials.

Principal Investigator Name: 

PI: Frank Balis, MD - Co-PI: Ted Laetsch, MD - Scholars: Jacquelyn Crane, MD; Christina Turn, MD; Adeline Yang, MD; Rachel Hurley, MD/PhD

Project Title: 

Center of Excellence in Childhood Cancer Drug Development and Clinical Pharmacology at CHOP

Year Awarded: 

2013

Cancer Research Category: 

Category of Grant: 

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe: 

Institution: 

Pediatric Developmental Therapeutics Center of Excellence at UCSF

UCSF has an active Pediatric Cancer Developmental Therapeutics Program. The goals of the program are:

Principal Investigator Name: 

Katherine Matthay, MD, Kieuhoa Vo, MD, - Scholars: Amit Sabnis, MD, Lena Winestone, MD/MSHP, Beth Winger, MD/PhD, Bo Qiu, MD/PhD

Project Title: 

Pediatric Developmental Therapeutics Center of Excellence at UCSF

Year Awarded: 

2012

Cancer Research Category: 

Category of Grant: 

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe: 

Institution: 

Texas Children's Cancer Center Alex's Lemonade Stand Center of Excellence

The Developmental Therapeutics Program at Texas Children's Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine is one of the country's leading centers for the development and conduct of early phase studies for childhood cancer The Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation Centers of Excellence (ALSF COE) award addresses two of the major challenges in pediatric cancer drug development: the inadequacy of infrastructure support for early phase clinical trials, and the very small cadre of individuals optimally trained to implement and conduct such studies.

Principal Investigator Name: 

Stacey Berg, MD - Scholars: Holly Lindsay, MD/MS, Sarah Injac, MD

Project Title: 

Texas Children's Cancer Center Alex's Lemonade Stand Center of Excellence

Year Awarded: 

2012

Cancer Research Category: 

Category of Grant: 

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe: 

Institution: 

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