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.

Mechanisms of regulation of the PI#K/AKT pathway downstream of NOTCH1 in T-ALL.

Background

Principal Investigator Name:

Teresa Palomero, PhD

Project Title:

Mechanisms of regulation of the PI#K/AKT pathway downstream of NOTCH1 in T-ALL.

Year Awarded:

2007

Cancer Research Category:

Category of Grant:

Young Investigator Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

Columbia University

University of Colorado Denver

Background
Brain tumors are the leading cause of death from cancer in children under the age of 15 years. Medulloblastoma, the most common pediatric brain tumor, continues to have 5-year overall survival rates of 60%. Furthermore disease and treatment related morbidity is a major problem. Developing disease risk assessment tools for targeting current therapeutics is vital. Developing novel therapies that are less toxic is also crucial.

Principal Investigator Name:

Rajeev Vibhakar, MD, PhD, MPH

Project Title:

DNA methylation in medulloblastoma

Year Awarded:

2007

Cancer Research Category:

Category of Grant:

Young Investigator Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

University of Colorado Denver

Feinstein Institute for Medical Research - North Shore

Anti-angiogenic therapies are a novel treatment modality for many adult and pediatric cancers and use of anti-angiogenic agents in the adult clinical world has already begun. In prior work done at Columbia University, Dr Soffer and his colleagues have shown that antibody to Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF), the most important of a large cadre of angiogenic factors, blocks tumor growth in both Wilms tumor and neuroblastoma. This anti-VEGF agent, Bevacizumab, is in current clinical use in the treatment of metastatic colon cancer.

Principal Investigator Name:

Samuel Soffer, MD

Project Title:

Resistance to anti-angiogenic therapy in pediatric solid tumors.

Year Awarded:

2007

Cancer Research Category:

Wilms Tumor

Category of Grant:

Young Investigator Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

Feinstein Institute for Medical Research - North Shore

The Johns Hopkins University

AML is the 3rd leading cause of cancer related death in children. Despite treatment intensification, only approximately half of children survive their disease.

Principal Investigator Name:

Ido Paz-Priel, MD

Project Title:

The Role of Inhibition of Apoptosis by C/EBPalpha and C/EBPalpha oncoproteins in AML.

Year Awarded:

2007

Cancer Research Category:

Category of Grant:

Young Investigator Grants

Institution:

The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Children's Research Institute

In simple terms, what is your project about?
Developing a new mouse model for rhabdomyosarcoma therapy testing.

What type of childhood cancer does your project focus on?
Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is the most common pediatric soft-tissue sarcoma. Fortunately, through modern medical advances most children with localized tumors can be cured. However, children that present with metastatic disease at the time of diagnosis have a poor prognosis and survival rate.

Principal Investigator Name:

Dawn Chandler, PhD

Project Title:

Developing an accurate genetic model for rhabdomyosarcoma therapy

Year Awarded:

2007

Cancer Research Category:

Rhabdomyosarcoma

Category of Grant:

Young Investigator Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

Children’s Research Institute

Stanford University

Neuroblastoma is one of the most common cancers in children, only leukemias and brain cancers are more frequent. The five-year survival for children with metastatic neuroblastoma is only 35%. With recurrent disease, this percentage is even lower. In addition, all modalities currently used in treating cancers including chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery are utilized in these patients. For a four year old, this can encompass a large portion of his or her short life. This is a disease that medicine must have greater success with in the future.

Principal Investigator Name:

Robert Cho

Project Title:

The Identification of Neuroblastoma Cancer Stem Cells.

Year Awarded:

2007

Cancer Research Category:

Neuroblastoma

Category of Grant:

Young Investigator Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

Stanford University

The Ohio State University

RAMBO Delivers 1-2 Punch to Brain Tumors
The Ohio State University Medical Center
2007 ALSF Young Investigator

Principal Investigator Name:

Balveen Kaur, PhD

Project Title:

Generation of a novel oncolytic virus for treatment of pediatric brain tumors.

Year Awarded:

2007

Cancer Research Category:

Brain Tumors

Category of Grant:

Young Investigator Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

The Ohio State University

Baylor College of Medicine

Nabil Ahmed I received a grant from Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation in 2006, when I had promising data that immune cells could be used against pediatric bone cancers. Thanks to the ALSF funding, we were able to continue to work on this project and the results have been very gratifying.

Principal Investigator Name:

Nabil Ahmed, MD, MSc

Project Title:

Immunotherapy for Osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma

Year Awarded:

2007

Cancer Research Category:

Category of Grant:

Young Investigator Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

Baylor College of Medicine

The Johns Hopkins University

Update - 6/2014:

Principal Investigator Name:

Will Parsons, MD, PhD

Project Title:

An Exploration of the Medulloblastoma and Glioblastoma Genomes: A Critical Analysis of Candidate Cancer Genes as Potential Molecular Targets for Diagnostics and Therapeutics

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

Harbor - UCLA Medical Center

From Joseph L. Lasky III, M.D. at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA:

The grant from Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation is allowing our research to proceed on how to better target brain tumors in children using the immune system. This is urgently needed since current therapies cause so much damage to normal brains and organs. This support from the Foundation is truly invaluable and speeding the process towards finding a cure for children's cancer, while preserving the memory of a beautiful little girl.

Principal Investigator Name:

Joseph Lasky

Project Title:

Immunotherapeutic Targeting of Stem Cells in Pediatric Brain Tumors

Year Awarded:

2008

Cancer Research Category:

Brain Tumors

Category of Grant:

Young Investigator Grants

Institution:

Harbor - UCLA Medical Center

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