Innovation Grants

These grants are designed to provide critical and significant seed funding for experienced investigators with a novel and promising approach to finding causes and cures for childhood cancers. A Letter of Intent is required. The Innovation Award amount totals $250,000 over two years. The Award may not be renewed, however, one no cost extensions are allowable.

Download the 2025 Innovation Grant Full Application Guidelines

University of California San Francisco

Background

Principal Investigator Name:

Alejandro Sweet-Cordero, MD & Maximillian Diehn, MD/PhD (Stanford University)

Project Title:

Detection of Circulating Tumor DNA in Pediatric Sarcomas

Year Awarded:

2016

Cancer Research Category:

Category of Grant:

Innovation Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

The Regents of the University of California San Francisco

Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital

Background

Principal Investigator Name:

Kevin Cassady, MD & Christopher Walker, PhD

Project Title:

Improving Immune-Mediated Oncolytic Viral Therapy: Engineering Tumor Vaccine Elements into the Virus

Year Awarded:

2016

Cancer Research Category:

Category of Grant:

Innovation Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital

Developing and Distributing a Pediatric Spinal Cord High-grade Glioma Model

Background

Principal Investigator Name:

Michelle Monje, MD/PhD

Project Title:

Developing and Distributing a Pediatric Spinal Cord High-grade Glioma Model

Year Awarded:

2016

Cancer Research Category:

Category of Grant:

Innovation Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

Stanford University

University of Minnesota

Background

Principal Investigator Name:

David Largaespada, PhD

Project Title:

Enhancing Pediatric Sarcoma Immunotherapy by Drug Induced Expression of Tumor-Specific Cryptic Neoantigens

Year Awarded:

2016

Cancer Research Category:

Category of Grant:

Innovation Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

University of Minnesota

Weill Cornell Medical College

Background

Diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPG) are aggressive, inoperable brain tumors that affect children. Life expectancy from a DIPG diagnosis is less than 1 year, even with intervention. There are no known survivors of DIPG. DIPG differ from other pediatric cancers because DIPG do not respond to chemotherapy. The blood brain barrier (BBB) insulates DIPG from chemotherapeutic treatment.

Project Goal

Principal Investigator Name:

Mark Souweidane, MD & Richard Ting, PhD

Project Title:

Image Guided Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma Drug Delivery and Design

Year Awarded:

2016

Cancer Research Category:

Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG)

Category of Grant:

Innovation Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

Weill Cornell Medical College

Massachusetts General Hospital

Background

Principal Investigator Name:

Mario Suva, MD/PhD

Project Title:

Redefining the Cellular Architecture of Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma through Large-Scale Single-cell RNA-seq Analyses

Year Awarded:

2016

Cancer Research Category:

Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG)

Category of Grant:

Innovation Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

Massachusetts General Hospital

Weill Cornell Medical College

Background

Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant pediatric brain tumor and, unfortunately, nearly one-third of affected children ultimately die of the disease despite aggressive therapy. High-risk medulloblastoma and recurrent tumors portend an even poorer prognosis. To improve patient outcomes, our primary goal is to improve methods to noninvasively detect tumor progression or relapse at early stages that will likely offer therapeutic opportunities or alter treatment strategies.

Project Goals

Principal Investigator Name:

David Lyden, MD/PhD & Parveen Raju, MD/PhD

Project Title:

Circulating Exosomes as Biomarkers of Medulloblastoma Progression, Metastasis, and Recurrence

Year Awarded:

2016

Cancer Research Category:

Medulloblastoma

Category of Grant:

Innovation Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

Weill Cornell Medical College

Boston Children's Hospital

Background

The LIN28 family of RNA binding proteins are known drivers of many pediatric cancers. These proteins function by blocking the function of the let-7 family of microRNAs, which exert tumor suppressive effects. To date, despite the panoply of childhood tumors driven by LIN28, efforts to target this protein in pediatric cancer are lacking.

Project Goal

Principal Investigator Name:

George Q. Daley, MD/PhD

Project Title:

Targeted Inhibition of Lin28/let-7 Binding to Treat Pediatric Malignancy

Year Awarded:

2016

Cancer Research Category:

Category of Grant:

Innovation Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

Boston Children’s Hospital

Boston Children's Hospital

Background

Principal Investigator Name:

Dr. Ben Croker, PhD

Project Title:

GeneEditing in T cell Leukemia to Promote Immunomodulatory Forms of Cell Death

Year Awarded:

2016

Cancer Research Category:

Category of Grant:

Innovation Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

Boston Children’s Hospital

Johns Hopkins University

Background

It has been difficult to model pediatric spinal cord gliomas, which include tumors known as ependymoma and astrocytoma, by culturing the cells from patient surgeries in plastic dishes or growing them in mice. This lack of good models has in turn hindered our ability to understand which genetic changes are the key "drivers" of tumor formation and growth and how we might most effectively target these tumors with new therapies.

Project Goal

Principal Investigator Name:

Charles Eberhart, MD/PhD & Eric Raabe MD/PhD

Project Title:

Modeling Pediatric Spinal Gliomas Using Murine Spinal Neural Stem Cells

Year Awarded:

2016

Cancer Research Category:

Category of Grant:

Innovation Grants

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe:

Medical

Institution:

The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

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