The Childhood Cancer Data Lab (CCDL) started with what seemed like a simple mission: develop tools to help pediatric oncology researchers access data, easily and quickly, in order to speed the work towards cures.
Of course, creating those tools is anything but simple.
Keep reading to learn more about how CCDL director, Casey Green PhD, is leading the charge towards cures, one data set at time.
When you picture childhood cancer research, you may picture samples in test tubes and microscopes or a drug being tested in a clinic. And while childhood cancer research certainly happens in a biochem lab and in a clinic, it also happens inside the Childhood Cancer Data Lab (CCDL). Funded by ALSF, the CCDL team is working to harness the power of big data and use it to cure childhood cancer.
“Data is the lifeblood of science,” says Jaclyn Taroni, PhD, data scientist at the CCDL, “Data can better equip researchers to ask the really important scientific questions and to do so efficiently and robustly, truly works towards cures for childhood cancer.” Read more from Dr. Taroni.
When Eirini Papapetrou, MD, PhD from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai started her lab, she devoted her research to developing specialized iPSC models.
This might not mean a lot to those of us who are not researchers. But these models—made from patient-derived cells—could be the key to understanding the drivers behind certain types of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), one of the most difficult and deadliest types of pediatric leukemia. Read more on Dr. Papapetrou’s AML research:
According to the UNESCO Institute of Statistics, less than 30-percent of the world’s scientific researchers are women. As the world works to narrow the gender gap, women researchers are working on cures for childhood cancer—both in the lab and the clinic.
In honor of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month in March, meet five women leading the way to cures for childhood cancer:
Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) has committed $25 million to its new initiative, The Crazy 8, striving for a future free of childhood cancer.
Continuing to distinguish itself as a leader in funding pediatric cancer research, ALSF has launched a first-of-its-kind initiative in the fight against childhood cancer. The Crazy 8 Initiative is a commitment to develop a comprehensive, attainable plan to find cures for pediatric cancers by bringing together the world’s leading childhood cancer researchers to solve eight critical problems.
Every day, around the world, over 700 children are diagnosed with one of the hundreds of types of childhood cancer—the equivalent of an entire elementary school of children.
Down in Lubbock, Texas, researcher Dr. Patrick Reynolds is working to grow cancer cell lines in order to eventually cure childhood cancer. Funded in part by Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, Dr. Reynolds leads the Childhood Cancer Cell Repository, a bank of about 450 cancer cell lines and 75 genomic models. As researchers focus on targeted therapies for children, cell lines and genomic models offer invaluable clues.
For Eden, the trouble began when she was 10 years old. The trouble had a name: pain. It seemed normal at first—maybe a side effect from dancing or growing. But then it never went away and then, suddenly, Eden could not dance anymore.
“I knew in my heart it was more than growing pains,” said Eden’s mom, Shannon.
Children with certain types of hard-to-treat childhood cancers just got another huge dose of hope. Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to a drug called Vitrakvi (also known as larotrectinib), making the treatment available to children with cancers that are NTRK fusion-positive.
Grayson was a witty, intelligent kid who loved playing in his band, Minecraft, board games and so much more. He was diagnosed with anaplastic astrocytoma and after 23 months of treatment, sadly passed away.
by Trish Adkins
