Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital

Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital

700 Children's Drive

Columbus, OH 43205

United States

Targeting the Checkpoint Receptor TIGIT via CRISPR/Cas9 Genome Editing to Enhance NK Cell Anti-Tumor Activity

Pediatric cancer remains the second leading cause of death in children. One type of cancer that is particularly difficult to treat is FLT3 mutant acute myeloid leukemia (AML). AML cells that have a FLT3 mutation grow at a rapid rate and develop strategies to escape monitoring by the immune system, including blocking natural killer (NK) cell anti-tumor activity. We also know that many cancer patients have low NK cell numbers and decreased NK cell activity as a result of chemotherapy.

Emily Theisen, PhD

Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital

Families of Children with Advanced Cancer: The Impact of Social Determinants of Health

General Pediatric Cancer

Mentor Name: Cynthia Gerhardt

Redefining Osteosarcoma Metastases as Chronic Non-healing Lung Wounds: Implications for Developing Novel Therapies

Osteosarcoma

Osteosarcoma is a bone cancer that affects children, adolescents, and young adults. Thanks to modern treatment approaches, nearly 7 out of 10 young people diagnosed with osteosarcoma survive into adulthood.

A Multi-omics Approach to Defining the Differential Impact of IL-15 Versus IL-21 on Mature NK Cells

General Pediatric Cancer

Mentor: Dean Lee

Natural Killer (NK) cell therapy is a rapidly growing field in cancer therapeutics. This project will help us identify the key differences between IL2, IL15 and IL21 in NK cells to optimize our ability to make these cells as therapeutics for patients and will also provide a broad foundation for us to understand the impact of these two cytokines on NK cell biology.

Generation of CMV-specific CD19 CAR T cells Using Cytokine Capture Followed by Lentiviral Transduction and Expansion

Leukemia, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL)

Lay Summary: Pediatric leukemia remains the second leading cause of cancer death in children. While outcomes for newly diagnosed patients have dramatically improved in the last several decades, response rates for relapsed ALL remain <50%. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells are immune cells that are taken out of the body and genetically changed to attack cancer cells. CAR T cells are typically made from the patient’s own immune cells.

Using Splice Switching Oligonucleotides (SSOs) to target MDM2 for rhabdomyosarcoma therapy

Rhabdomyosarcoma

We are so thankful to the Flashes of Hope and the Dale and Marsh Earnhardt Fund for co-funding our project to identify new treatments for rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), which is the most common soft-tissue sarcoma of childhood. Even in times of the pandemic, we have been steadfast in our commitment to cancer research to help protect and ensure a future for pediatric cancer patients.

Families of Children with Advanced Cancer: Quality of Life & Goals of Care

General Pediatric Cancer

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

Brain Tumors, Glioma

Background

Bad Influence: EWS/FLI Alters LSD1 and NuRD Interactions to Enforce Oncogenic Function in Ewing’s

Ewing Sarcoma

Background

Ewing’s sarcoma is an aggressive pediatric bone tumor characterized by the EWS/FLI fusion gene. While advances in multimodal therapy have raised disease-free survival rates above 70% for patients with localized disease, survival rates for in metastatic and refractory cases remain stuck below 30%. We need better therapeutic strategies for these patients. EWS/FLI remains challenging to treat with drugs directly and sequencing of patient tumors failed to identify additional drug-treatable mutations common across patients.

Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer