Young Investigator Grants

Young Investigator grants are designed to fill the critical need for startup funds for less experienced researchers to pursue promising research ideas. Eligible applicants may apply during their fellowship training or early in their research careers but must not have achieved an appointment higher than Instructor. These grants encourage and cultivate the best and brightest researchers of the future and lead to long-term research projects. The Young Investigator grant offers up to $60,000 per year for three years.

Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University School of Medicine

Project Goal

Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumor in children. Approximately 1/3 of medulloblastomas gain the long arm of chromosome 17. Since the WIP1 cancer-causing gene is located on the long arm of chromosome 17, we investigated its expression in medulloblastoma tumor tissues and in cell lines derived from medulloblastomas.

Results

Principal Investigator Name:

Robert Craig Castellino, MD

Project Title:

WIP1 Modulates Responsiveness of MB to Genotoxic Stress.

Year Awarded:

2006

Cancer Research Category:

Category of Grant:

Young Investigator Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

Aflac Cancer Center and Blood Disorders Service of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta

Regents of the University of Michigan

Project Goal

My research focus has been in the study of graft versus host disease. While in the lab with Dr. Ken Cooke as my mentor, my initial project examined the role of leukocyte migration in a murine model of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). I specifically worked on a chemokine receptor known as CCR1 and evaluated its effect in the development of systemic and target organ GVHD.

Results

Principal Investigator Name:

Sung Won Choi, MD

Project Title:

Mechanisms of leukocyte recruitment to the lung during idiopathic pneumonia syndrome following allogeneic bone marrow transplantation.

Year Awarded:

2006

Cancer Research Category:

General Pediatric Cancer

Category of Grant:

Young Investigator Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

Regents of the University of Michigan

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

Background

Principal Investigator Name:

Anna Marie Kenney, PhD

Project Title:

Hedgehog & IGF Signaling through IRSI in Brain Development and Medulloblastoma

Year Awarded:

2006

Cancer Research Category:

Category of Grant:

Young Investigator Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Cancer is a condition of uncontrolled cell growth and division. Cells must duplicate their genetic material, DNA, prior to cell division. This process requires a period of preparation by the cell. Having duplicated its DNA, the cell must reconfigure its resources to permit division into two daughter cells. These are extraordinarily complex processes that involve the contributions of many proteins working in a coordinated fashion. These processes are carefully regulated.

Principal Investigator Name:

Michael Engel, MD, PhD

Project Title:

MTG-16 Regulation by Phosphorylation

Year Awarded:

2006

Cancer Research Category:

General Pediatric Cancer

Category of Grant:

Young Investigator Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Neuroblastoma is a solid malignant tumor of childhood that occurs along the spinal cord and adrenal gland and is often aggressive and difficult to cure. While most high-risk neuroblastoma patients initially respond well to chemotherapy, more than 50% of those patients ultimately die of neuroblastoma that recurs and becomes resistant to currently used chemotherapy.

Principal Investigator Name:

Theresa Harned, MD

Project Title:

Assess the activity of ABT-737 as a single agent against neuroblastoma cell lines grown in cell culture

Year Awarded:

2006

Cancer Research Category:

Neuroblastoma

Category of Grant:

Young Investigator Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Duke University Medical Center

Photo, left: Dr. Linardic's lab. She is standing at the back, on the left.

Project Background

Principal Investigator Name:

Corinne Mary Linardic, MD, PhD

Project Title:

Pax3-FKHR targets that enable bypass of cellular senescence in rhabdomyosarcoma.

Year Awarded:

2006

Cancer Research Category:

Rhabdomyosarcoma

Category of Grant:

Young Investigator Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

Duke University Medical Center

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

The three specific aims of this project are to:
•   Develop a tractable in vivo model for the monitoring of dynamic changes in neuroblastoma vascularization during tumor growth and in the context of chronic VEGF inhibition.
•   Define optimal targets for synergistically enhancing the tumor growth delay mediated by anti-angiogenic effects of VEGF inhibition.
•   Perform preclinical trials to define optimal dual angiogenesis inhibition strategies that are readily translatable to the clinic.

Principal Investigator Name:

Naomi Balamuth, MD

Project Title:

Anti-Angiogenic Effects of BAI Proteins in Neuroblastoma

Year Awarded:

2006

Cancer Research Category:

Neuroblastoma

Category of Grant:

Young Investigator Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Stanford University

“As a young faculty, there are not too many opportunities for external funding where people trust you with a new ambitious project.”

Project Background

Principal Investigator Name:

Julien Sage

Project Title:

Modeling osteosarcoma to identify novel therapeutic targets.

Year Awarded:

2006

Cancer Research Category:

Osteosarcoma

Category of Grant:

Young Investigator Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

Stanford University

The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

To determine promoter and genome-wide patterns of methylation alterations in AML and high-risk sarcoma samples from known clinical/molecular subgroups. We hypothesize that tumor samples with known adverse prognostic features will have distinct regional changes in CpG methylation when compared to lower-risk counterpart samples.

Principal Investigator Name:

Jason Farrar, MD

Project Title:

The Role of PASG in Mediating Epigenetic Change and Outcome in AML.

Year Awarded:

2007

Cancer Research Category:

Category of Grant:

Young Investigator Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Precursor B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia is the most common cancer in children. In approximately 10% of patients with precursor B-cell ALL, the transcription factor E2A is involved in a chromosomal translocation. Three translocations have been identified: t(1;19), t(17;19), and inv(19), which fuse E2A to the genes PBX1, HLF, and FB1, respectively.

Principal Investigator Name:

Bruce Fischer, MD

Project Title:

E2A translocations in pediatric leukemia: developing new therapeutic targets

Year Awarded:

2007

Cancer Research Category:

Category of Grant:

Young Investigator Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

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