December 30, 2006

Amount:  $4,358
Recipient: Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, Maryland.
This was our second distribution in support of a research project titled “Tumor Stem Cell Based Drug Discovery for Adult and Pediatric Glioma” headed up by Dr. John Laterra. See the brief description below.

September 2, 2006

Amount:  $4,770
Recipient: Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, Maryland.
In support of a research project titled “Tumor Stem Cell Based Drug Discovery for Adult and Pediatric Glioma” headed up by Dr. John Laterra.
Brief Study Description: Pre-clinical models of malignant brain tumors remain important in the identification of anti-cancer compounds. Unfortunately, the cell culture and animal models currently used for drug discovery have deficiencies that limit their ability to predict therapeutic responses in patients. A potentially critical explanation for this deficiency is that past models inadequately address possibility that a small subpopulation of glioma cancer cells with stem-cell-like properties (i.e. glioma cancer stem cells) may generate the bulk of cancer cells within each tumor. This emerging concept predicts that therapies will fail if they do not specifically target the cancer stem cells and stem-cell-driven tumor recurrence. The hypothesis of this 3-year research program is that stem-cell-like cancer cells in glioma are a necessary and specific primary target for therapeutic intervention. We propose to pursue this hypothesis, looking at both adult and pediatric gliomas, with a new collaborative network of scientists and clinicians from four academic institutions within the United States and Italy who are experts in the fields of basic stem cell biology, cancer biology, molecular genetics, neuropathology, neuro-oncology, neurosurgery, neuroradiology, experimental therapeutics, and clinical trial design.

June 11, 2006

Amount:  $4,770
Recipient: The Dream Factory of St. Louis, Friends of Kids With Cancer and Give Kids the World. 
Each of these organizations has touched our lives, as well as countless others, in their efforts to help children with life-threatening diseases.