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Reach Grants

This award is designed to move hypothesis-driven research toward the clinic. A successful application will identify an unmet clinical need relevant to the care of patients with pediatric cancer and describe how the work performed will allow for the translation of hypothesis-driven research to the clinic, keeping broader clinical testing and implementation in view. A maximum of $250,000 in total costs will be awarded over two years.

Download the 2025 Reach Grant Application Guidelines

University of California San Francisco

Background

Neuroblastoma is among the most common and deadly cancers of childhood. While some improvement has been made in the treatment of high-risk neuroblastoma through the escalation of toxic high-dose chemotherapy and immunotherapy, the overall prognosis for these patients is still poor. Alternative approaches using targeted therapy are critically needed.

Principal Investigator Name: 

William Clay Gustafson, M.D., Ph.D.

Project Title: 

Identifying Novel Therapeutic Combinations with 131I-MIBG to Treat Relapsed and Refractory Neuroblastoma

Year Awarded: 

2014

Cancer Research Category: 

Category of Grant: 

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe: 

Institution: 

Baylor College of Medicine

A diagnosis of atypical rhabdoid/teratoid tumor (AT/RT) in the nervous system of an infant or young child is devastating. AT/RT is a very aggressive tumor that exhibits a five-year survival of less than 20%, and the types of intensive chemo- and radiotherapeutic treatment regimens most likely to extend life do so only at wholly unacceptable cost to cognitive function. This is true not just of AT/RT but for many other kinds of brain tumors as well: curative radiotherapy can lead to neurocognitive incapacitation and a life of permanent institutionalization.

Principal Investigator Name: 

William Decker, PhD

Project Title: 

Immunotherapy for Pediatric Atypical Teratoid/Rhabdoid Tumor

Year Awarded: 

2013

Cancer Research Category: 

Category of Grant: 

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe: 

Institution: 

The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Background
Current treatments for patients with relapsed sarcomas are ineffective. The best chemotherapy regimens shrink tumors only 40% of the time, without prolonging survival. Effective treatments for these patients are a critical unmet medical need, and new molecularly targeted therapies represent the most promising approach to this difficult problem.

Principal Investigator Name: 

David Loeb, MD, PhD

Project Title: 

Targeting RNA Helicase DDX3 to Treat Recurrent High Grade Sarcoma

Year Awarded: 

2013

Cancer Research Category: 

Category of Grant: 

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe: 

Institution: 

Duke University Medical Center

Background
Neuroblastoma is the most common cancer in infancy, with advanced-stage patients having a low survival rate. Patients with neuroblastoma cells that more closely resemble normal cells (i.e. differentiated) and with tumors with more connective tissue (i.e. stroma) have a better survival rate.

Principal Investigator Name: 

Gerard Blobe, MD, PhD

Project Title: 

Stroma Biology Identifies Heparin as a Differentiating Agent in Neuroblastoma

Year Awarded: 

2013

Cancer Research Category: 

Category of Grant: 

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe: 

Institution: 

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Background
Atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumors (ATRTs) are highly lethal cancers that most commonly occur in the brain of young children. Despite maximally intense therapy, most patients with ATRTs die of their disease and the few children who survive are often significantly disabled due to the effects of radiation on their developing brains. Historically, using targeted therapies for ATRTs has been very difficult as the most common gene mutation in these cancers is not currently druggable.

Principal Investigator Name: 

James Amatruda, MD, PhD

Project Title: 

B-lapachone as a Novel Targeted Therapy for ATRTs and other Pediatric Cancers

Year Awarded: 

2013

Cancer Research Category: 

Category of Grant: 

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe: 

Institution: 

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Background
Neuroblastoma remains a devastating clinical problem and continues to be a leading cause of childhood cancer morbidity and mortality despite dramatic increases in therapy. We made the discovery that the Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK) oncogene is a promising therapeutic target in neuroblastoma and translated this seminal finding into a clinical trial.

Principal Investigator Name: 

Yael Mossé, MD

Project Title: 

Preclinical Development of Targeted Therapy for Neuroblastoma with ALK and CDK4/6 Dual Pathway Inhibition

Year Awarded: 

2013

Cancer Research Category: 

Category of Grant: 

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe: 

Institution: 

Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope

Background
Medulloblastomas are the most common malignant childhood brain tumors. These devastating tumors develop in the cerebellum, which is located in the lower part of the brain and is important in motor control. Despite recent advances in treatment, current therapies for medulloblastoma are often severely damaging to brain development and skeletal growth. Therefore, new treatments are critically needed to improve the survival and quality of life of children with medulloblastoma.

Principal Investigator Name: 

Margarita Gutova, MD

Project Title: 

Neural Stem Cell-Mediated Drug Delivery for Targeted Treatment of Medulloblastoma

Year Awarded: 

2013

Cancer Research Category: 

Category of Grant: 

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe: 

Institution: 

University of Colorado, Denver

Overall survival for children diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) has dramatically improved over recent years due to optimization of dosing and timing of standard chemotherapeutics. However, this intensified treatment is associated with increased short-term side effects and long-term, irreversible toxicities, which occur in up to 25% of pediatric patients and include cognitive and developmental disabilities, infertility, damage to organs, and secondary cancers.  In addition, subsets of patients are refractory to therapy or have disease relapse.

Principal Investigator Name: 

Doug Graham, MD, PhD

Project Title: 

Development of a Novel Mer Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor for Treatment of ALL

Year Awarded: 

2013

Cancer Research Category: 

Category of Grant: 

Medical, Nurse Researcher, Quality of LIfe: 

Institution: 

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