The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising money for childhood cancer research, awarded an infrastructure grant of $67,560 to The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. A $50,000 grant was also awarded to the Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) Committee of the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) which will be administered by Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Infrastructure grants provide resources to make more research possible and treat more kids through clinical trials, their best hope for a cure.
The St. Baldrick’s Foundation currently funds more in childhood cancer research grants than any organization except the U.S. government. This year St. Baldrick’s volunteers have raised funds making it possible to grant more than $14 million for childhood cancer research. Nationwide Children’s Hospital is one of 25 institutions to receive funding as part of the Foundation’s fall grants which totaled more than $1.3 million.
Worldwide, 160,000 children are diagnosed with cancer each year and cancer is the leading cause of death by disease among children in the United States. With only 3 percent of all federal cancer research funding dedicated to pediatric cancer research, St. Baldrick’s grant awards are critical to continue the battle against this devastating disease.
The $67,560 grant will support the institution’s work in immunofluorescent staining and light microscopy imaging and help integrate a new imaging modality that will assist in the early diagnosis and treatment of a wide variety of pediatric cancers.
“We are grateful to the St. Baldrick’s Foundation for the enormous support this grant will provide to our Center and to the pediatric cancer-based grants that we interact with,” said Nilsa C. Ramirez, M.D., medical director of the Biopathology Center in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. “St. Baldrick’s has become a recognized leader in childhood cancer research funding, and we are gratified to have our work in the area of virtual microscopy validated by the award of this grant.”
The $50,000 grant will assist the ALL committee in their analysis of ALL and host cells from affected children and efforts to better understand genetic changes that might contribute to a child’s risk of relapse. This grant will be used to support specialists who will create databases that will allow researchers to analyze complex data and help reach their goal of treating a child while minimizing toxicity for childhood leukemia.
“The support that the informatics team will receive at Nationwide Children’s Hospital from a
St. Baldrick’s Foundation infrastructure grant will support much needed work to integrate large sets of data that have been generated from lymphoblastic leukemia samples that have been intensively studied with sophisticated genomics technologies over recent years,” said Mignon Loh, M.D., Vice Chair of Biology of the COG ALL Committee. “We now find ourselves in need of ways to curate and organize the data so that the results can be applied to patient care.”
Grant applications were reviewed based on the need and the anticipated results of the grant. Institutions were also considered based on the level of participation by the local community in St. Baldrick’s Foundation events. St. Baldrick’s signature head-shaving events are the largest volunteer-driven fundraising opportunity benefitting childhood cancer research and this year, the organization’s volunteers helped raise more than $22 million. Since 2000, more than $90 million has been raised to Conquer Kids’ Cancer.
Everyone can do their part to support the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. To locate or organize an event in your community, sign-up to shave, donate or volunteer, visit www.StBaldricks.org. You can also become a supporter on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, join the Foundation’s letsCONQUER movement and visit the St. Baldrick’s YouTube and Vimeo channels.
About the St. Baldrick’s Foundation
The St. Baldrick’s Foundation makes grants to research institutions to find new cures for childhood cancer, and to find treatments to ensure a better quality of life for patients and survivors. The Foundation funds research projects conducted by established pediatric cancer experts, as well as younger professionals who will be the experts of tomorrow. Funds also enable hundreds of local institutions to participate in national pediatric cancer clinical trials, offering the best available care for every child. The St. Baldrick’s Foundation is grateful to its many volunteers (bald or not!), donors and sponsors, including Allied World, Barbicide, Dowling & Partners, elope, Markit, and PartnerRe. For more information about St. Baldrick’s, please call
1.888.899.BALD or visit www.StBaldricks.org.
St. Baldricks Foundation Awards a Total of $117,560 to The Research Institute at Nationwide Childrens Hospital
December 10, 2010
About Nationwide Children's Hospital
Named to the Top 10 Honor Roll on U.S. News & World Report’s 2023-24 list of “Best Children’s Hospitals,” Nationwide Children’s Hospital is one of America’s largest not-for-profit free-standing pediatric health care systems providing unique expertise in pediatric population health, behavioral health, genomics and health equity as the next frontiers in pediatric medicine, leading to best outcomes for the health of the whole child. Integrated clinical and research programs, as well as prioritizing quality and safety, are part of what allows Nationwide Children’s to advance its unique model of care. Nationwide Children’s has a staff of more than 14,000 that provides state-of-the-art wellness, preventive and rehabilitative care and diagnostic treatment during more than 1.7 million patient visits annually. As home to the Department of Pediatrics of The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Nationwide Children’s physicians train the next generation of pediatricians and pediatric specialists. The Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital is one of the Top 10 National Institutes of Health-funded free-standing pediatric research facilities. More information is available at NationwideChildrens.org.