Children's Cancer Research Fund (CCRF) Grants New Local Researchers Emerging Scientist Awards

CCRF's Emerging Scientist Award develops the independent research of highly qualified scientists still early in their careers.

MINNEAPOLIS, Sept. 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CCRF recently awarded two promising scientists the Emerging Scientist Award at the University of Minnesota. Each award is worth $100,000 and will be used over a one-year period.

With the funding, Awardee Andrew Marley, Post-Doctoral Fellow, will be exploring the understudied link between maternal obesity and acute lymphoblastic leukemia incidence in children. Understanding if there is a link could help doctors create interventions, screen and identify children who may have pre-leukemia, help counsel parents and provide targets for future immunotherapies.

Awardee Jemma Larson, Post-Doctoral Associate, aims to understand the deadly impact of acute Graft-versus-Host Disease (aGVHD) in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Larson's work is critical for the continued development of safe and effective targeted therapies for children.

At CCRF, we believe early career scientists with inventive approaches can enliven the childhood cancer research field. Scientists just entering the field typically don't have the breadth or quantity of research that could make them stand out against those who are more experienced, making it difficult to earn large grants from the government and other institutions.

We've made it part of our mission to give them the funding to further explore their research so that kids can get treatments informed by fresh, forward-thinking perspectives. With our Emerging Scientist Award, their ideas turn into mature projects that can vie for larger grants.

"We would've never gotten [an R01 grant] without CCRF helping mature the project. The Emerging Scientist Award got the ball rolling, and we got it to snowball into a bigger project." - Beau Webber, PhD, a 2017 Emerging Scientist Award recipient, is on his way to a 5-year, $3.3 million R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health to support his Ewing sarcoma research at the University of Minnesota.

More about the Emerging Scientist Award can be found here.

CCRF invests in groundbreaking research that is leading to better treatments and cures for children with cancer. Since 1981, CCRF donors have funded research that has revolutionized the way childhood cancer is treated worldwide. Visit ChildrensCancer.org or call 888-422-7348 to learn more. 

SOURCE Children's Cancer Research Fund