Welcome to the Alex’s Million Miles fundraising page for the 2025 UCLA Nano Transformers (aka the Jonas Lab @ UCLA)!

This ALSF Million Miles team was created by Dr. Steven Jonas who is an Alex’s Lemonade Stand Young Investigator awardee. He is a pediatric oncologist and physician scientist at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine & Mattel Children’s Hospital, the California NanoSystems Institute, and the Broad Stem Cell Research Center.

Our UCLA Nano Transformers family continues to grow. We are so excited to announce that this year, Jonas Lab postdoctoral scientist Dr. Ruby Sims was awarded an ALSF Young Investigator Award! Congrats Ruby! 

The Jonas research group at UCLA explores the development of nanometer-scale technologies that support the childhood cancer research community. These tools help accelerate the discovery and broader deployment of personalized, precision medicine-based diagnostic tools and treatment strategies. Our team is comprised of a dynamic group of physicians, chemists, engineers, physicists, stem cell biologists, students, and patient advocates at UCLA who are all dedicated to conquering childhood cancer.

We are delighted to also be joined this year by our awesome undergraduate student group Bruins Fighting Pediatric Cancer whose members have worked in our lab. With over $70,000 raised towards the cause, BFPC is committed to raising awareness and support throughout the UCLA community for childhood cancer research. 

Every day, there are almost 800 new cases of childhood cancer around the world. This adds up to an estimated 300,000 new cases of cancer that affect children under the age of 20 each year worldwide. And yet, childhood cancer is vastly and consistently underfunded with less than 4% of the federal government's total funding for cancer research dedicated to childhood cancers each year.

Please consider joining our Million Miles team by either running, walking, or biking with us during the month of September (Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month) to raise awareness and support pediatric cancer research or by donating or pledging to support our cause by clicking on the Join or Donate buttons. Looking forward to reaching the Million Miles with you!