CancerFree KIDS invests record $1.65M in research

Cincinnati-based CancerFree KIDS is making a record $1.65 million investment in novel research at two of the country’s leading children’s hospitals in hopes of advancing treatments in the fight against pediatric cancers.

This year’s funding marks the largest single-year total in the nonprofit’s 23-year history, including $1 million awarded to Cincinnati Children’s for the first time and $650,000 to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus. Grants support New Idea Awards, which fund bold early-stage research, and Accelerator Awards, which allow researchers to continue promising work. 

Overall, CancerFree KIDS awarded a total of 25 research projects, 15 of them at Cincinnati Children’s and 10 at Nationwide Children’s. The full list of grant-funded programs is below.

“To be able to award $1 million to Cincinnati Children’s for the first time is a moment of pride and purpose for our organization,” said Jill Brinck, executive director of CancerFree KIDS. “Every dollar raised means more opportunities for researchers to explore new, less toxic treatments – and more hope for kids and families facing cancer.”

Giving hope through early-stage investments

CancerFree KIDS focuses on funding early-stage research projects that often struggle to find support. Since its founding in 2002, the organization has invested $12.5 million in 265 projects aimed at developing more effective, gentler treatments for children. 

This year’s funded projects cover a wide range of promising treatment approaches. At Cincinnati Children’s, researchers are studying ways to reduce inflammation to treat neurofibroma, target specific cell processes in pediatric leukemia, and understand genetic mutations that make some cancers resistant to treatment. Accelerator projects build on earlier successes, including investigating new drug targets for leukemia and studying how gut bacteria may influence treatment response.

Nationwide Children’s projects include developing experimental therapies to target virus-related cancers, using computer models to better understand rare cancer genes, and testing strategies to stop the spread of bone cancers to the lungs. Other projects are exploring ways to improve immune-based therapies and gene-targeting approaches for aggressive childhood cancers.

By providing funding at this crucial stage, researchers can prove concepts, attract additional support, and advance potential breakthroughs toward clinical use, said  Dr. Stella Davies, director of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Immune Deficiency at Cincinnati Children’s. She described CancerFree KIDS as filling a “unique need,” one that “drives innovation and allows for groundbreaking discoveries that hold the promise to bring more effective treatments to kids.”

“Funding from CancerFree KIDS is crucial to progress,” Davies said. “By investing in research in its critical early stages, CancerFree KIDS paves the way for researchers to explore ideas that they might never have the chance to pursue otherwise.”

2025 research grant investments

Cincinnati Children’s – New Idea Awards

• Unraveling the role of RMND1 in polyamine depletion therapy for pediatric acute myeloid leukemia – Karina Elizabeth Jimenez Camacho, PhD
• Defining the role of IRAK4 signaling on LSC chromatin state – Issac Choi
• Mechanism of Action for Targeting LARG-RhoA Signaling in Relapsed Neuroblastoma – Yuan Lin
• Understanding the role of RAS mutations in resistance to menin inhibition in KMT2Ar pediatric AML – Linde A. Miles, PhD
• Suppressing both inflammation and MEK to cure neurofibroma – Nancy Ratner, PhD
• Targeting glutathione metabolism in pediatric AML – Paula Saez Raez, BSc
• Splicing neoantigens as therapeutic targets in pediatric AML – Nathan Salomonis, PhD
• Novel vulnerabilities in acute myeloid leukemia – Zhe Wang
• Stopping Pediatric AML in Its Track by Dialing Down Inflammation in RUNX1-FPD Children – Chen Wang, MD, PhD
• Identifying targets to overcome cisplatin resistance in pediatric liver cancer – Peng V. Wu, MD, PhD

Cincinnati Children’s – Accelerator Awards

• Therapeutic targeting of the gut microbiota-driven TIFA signaling in refractory AML – Puneet Agarwal, PhD
• Understanding the Role of IGF2BP1 in Hematopoietic Ontogeny and Myeloid Leukemia Development in Infancy – Lynn Lee, MD
• LINE-1-Mediated inflammaging in High-Risk Pediatric Cancers – Kristie Ramos, MD
• CHAF1B degraders as a new first-in-class pediatric AML therapy – Andrew Volk, PhD
• Small molecules targeting SOS1 allosteric site in KRAS-driven JMML – Yi Zheng, PhD

Nationwide Children’s – New Idea Awards

• Targeting LMP2A with an AAV-based TCR-mimic bispecific to treat EBV-associated cancers – Abuzar Kaleem, PhD
• Metabolically targeting alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma to exploit novel therapeutic strategies – Jie Li, PhD
• Overcoming rejection of allogeneic CAR-expressing immune cells using a novel HLA-targeting shRNA incorporated into the CAR construct – Meisam Naeimi Kararoudi, DVM, PhD
• Combining the multi-kinase inhibitor brigatinib with the proteasome inhibitor ixazomib – Janet Oblinger, PhD
• Decoding tumor heterogeneity at the metastatic bottleneck in osteosarcoma – Kelly Gutpell, MD, PhD
• From Click to Insight: A Point-and-Click Computational Pipeline to Study How Rare Childhood Cancer Fusion Genes Rewire the Genome Using Zebrafish Models – Cenny Taslim, PhD
• Targeting aberrant splicing and Rhabdomyosarcoma: a novel bichromatic MDM2 Reporter approach – Chloe Nagasawa, PhD (Ohio State University)

Nationwide Children’s – Accelerator Awards

• Developing a novel Human IL-27-expressing oncolytic virus for malignant gliomas – Alexia Martin
• Matrix-associated signals mediating growth and survival of osteosarcoma lung metastases – Ryan Roberts, MD, PhD
• Dual-targeting of tumor and stroma using gene therapy based expression of tri-specific antibodies – Julie Tomolonis, MD, PhD

CancerFree KIDS