Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation Awards More Than $18.5 Million to Recipients of Crazy 8 Initiative to Advance Pediatric Cancer Research

PHILADELPHIA, March 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF), a nonprofit foundation devoted to finding cures for children with cancer, announces grant award recipients of their Crazy 8 Initiative. The recipients will receive grants totaling more than $18.5 million, which is the single, largest funding commitment from ALSF to date.

The Initiative kicked off in the Fall of 2018 with a meeting that brought together more than 90 scientists from around the world to help define the research landscape in order to tackle major obstacles impeding progress toward cures for childhood cancer. Through a rigorous review process, ALSF narrowed down over 100 applications to four projects that will work to accelerate the pace of new cure discovery.

Childhood cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in children, and the Crazy 8 Initiative is poised to change the trajectory of pediatric oncology. These grants will bring cross-disciplinary scientists together to work collaboratively in order to accelerate the pace of new cure discovery while aiming to provide detailed roadmaps for hard-to-treat childhood cancers.

"The Crazy 8 Initiative is vital because it orchestrates talent from around the world and creates collective solutions. Pediatric cancer research is at an incredibly pressing moment right now, and we're thrilled to be at the forefront of this progress—generating opportunities for collaboration by bringing world-class researchers together," said Liz Scott, Co-Executive Director of Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation. "This initiative is monumental, and we know it will move the needle for pediatric cancer research over the next five years."

A quick overview of the collaborative awarded Crazy 8 Initiative projects can be found below with details here - https://www.alexslemonade.org/crazy-8-initiative-projects.

Yael P. Mossé, MD, of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and a group of investigators from various institutions are teaming up to create a drug that will target the transcription factor MYCN, which drives aggressive pediatric cancers such as neuroblastoma and medulloblastoma. They will employ cutting-edge technology called targeted degradation to design a drug that will trick the cancer cells to dissolve MYCN, leading to cancer cell death.

Charles G. Mullighan, MBBS(Hons) MSc MD FRACP FRCPA, of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is leading a team to tackle mutant transcription factors that drive acute leukemias and medulloblastoma, two leading causes of cancer-related death in children. Aberrant transcription factors are difficult to inhibit with traditional drugs, and that's where this team is focusing its efforts, utilizing a new technology called molecular glues to degrade previously undruggable transcription factors. They will develop a library of molecular glues to screen for agents that are successful at killing acute leukemia or medulloblastoma cells.

Led by Leonard Zon, MD, of Boston Children's Hospital, investigators are joining forces to use a new genetic fingerprinting technology to study how blood cancers, such as leukemia, arise in development. They aim to understand what types of blood stem cells lead to different forms of pediatric leukemia and which key gene and pathway disruptions can alter stem cell function and subsequently kill leukemia cells. Ultimately this will inform new drug development for therapies that will disrupt leukemic stem cells and not normal blood stem cells.

Heinrich Kovar, Ph.D., of St. Anna Children's Cancer Research Institute, Vienna, Austria is leading a team to examine the developmental origins of malignant bone tumors, such as Ewing sarcoma and osteosarcoma. Using new single-cell genomics technology, as opposed to clusters of cells, and trans-species epigenomics, this team aims to better understand the developmental programs underlying bone tumor initiation and progression. This will allow for the development of better pre-clinical models in which to study the disease and will lead to rational design efforts for developing new drugs for these tumors.

While work on the first awarded Crazy 8 Initiative grants is underway, a second Crazy 8 Initiative request for applications was recently issued, bringing the total commitment to $25 million. To learn more visit: https://www.alexslemonade.org/crazy-8-initiative-projects.

About Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation

Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) emerged from the front yard lemonade stand of 4-year-old Alexandra "Alex" Scott, who was fighting cancer and wanted to raise money to find cures for children with cancer. When she passed away at the age of 8, she had raised $1 million. The Foundation bearing her name has become one of the leading funders of pediatric cancer research in the U.S. raising more than $200 million, funding over 1,000 research projects and providing programs to families affected by childhood cancer. For more information, visit https://www.alexslemonade.org.

Media Contact:
Liz Scott
[email protected]
484-437-5630

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SOURCE Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation