Three year, $1.5 million grants to be awarded to investigators at Baylor College of Medicine, Georgia Health Sciences University Research Institute and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Philadelphia, PA (December 5, 2014) – Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF), a nonprofit dedicated to finding cures for all kids with cancer, has announced the addition of an important new grant category accelerating the development of clinical trials for promising biologic approaches to treat childhood cancer. The Bio-therapeutics Impact Grants will use biological therapies to change how the body deals with cancer, with the first grants extending to researchers at Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, TX), Georgia Health Sciences University Research Institute (Augusta, GA), and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Seattle, WA). The new awards will represent the largest funding given by the Foundation, totaling $1.5 million each over the course of three years.

The 2014 Bio-therapeutics Impact Awards join an already successful line-up of grants in ALSF’s Accelerator Program, working to advance the pace of innovative research, and specifically pushing research on the cusp of clinical trial. The new grant category supports preclinical testing of promising new therapies in anticipation of applying for FDA approval as an Investigational New Drug (IND), as well as clinical trials for therapies approved by the FDA. The Bio-therapeutics Impact Grants will fund treatments for childhood cancers using biologic therapies that will help the immune system by boosting the body’s response to cancer; replace or fix genes causing cancer; or impact cell growth and survival.

The inaugural recipients of the Bio-therapeutics Impact Grants are: Leonid Metelitsa, MD/PhD of Baylor College of Medicine who will work to develop and clinically test a new form of cancer immunotherapy of neuroblastoma utilizing Natural Killer T cells (NKTs); Marie Bleakley, MD/PhD of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center who will examine immunotherapies, including vaccines, to help patients with high-risk leukemia; and Theodore Johnson, MD/PhD of Georgia Health Sciences University Research Institute who will work on a Phase I Trial of immunotherapy target indoximod in combination with temozolomide based therapy for children with progressive primary brain tumors. Recipients of the Bio-therapeutics Impact Grants are encouraged to utilize the Foundation’s Travel For Care Program to help enroll and get children to the clinical trials they need to fight their disease. (Full lay summaries available under separate cover).

“The Bio-therapeutics Impact Grants are extremely important to the process of developing and following through with clinical trials using the latest biological therapies,” said Jay Scott, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation’s Co-Executive Director. “Many of these research projects focus on hard to treat, high-risk cancers and may hold the key to finding better treatments, if not unlocking the cures for children fighting for their lives.”

In addition to the awarding of the inaugural Bio-therapeutics Impact Awards, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation has recently announced the awarding of several other grant categories to researchers on the front lines of the childhood cancer fight. For more information on recently funded projects, visit: ALSFgrants.org. 

About Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation

Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) emerged from the front yard lemonade stand of cancer patient Alexandra “Alex” Scott (1996-2004). In 2000, 4-year-old Alex announced that she wanted to hold a lemonade stand to raise money to help find a cure for all children with cancer. Since Alex held that first stand, the Foundation bearing her name has evolved into a national fundraising movement, complete with thousands of supporters across the country carrying on her legacy of hope. To date, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, a registered 501(c)3 charity, has raised more than $80 million toward fulfilling Alex’s dream of finding a cure, funding over 450 pediatric cancer research projects nationally. For more information on Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, visit AlexsLemonade.org.