|
In 2005, Lilah's Fund committed to
sponsoring two separate research projects led by Dr. David Kaplan at
the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Dr. Kaplan is the Senior
Scientist and Head of the Cancer Research program at the hospital.
One study is a collaboration with Dr. Akira Nakagawara, head of the
Chiba Cancer Centre in Japan. Dr. Nakagawara is the world's expert
in determining the genetic makeup of neuroblastomas. The purpose of
this study is to discover differences between the neuroblastoma
cells from favourable and unfavourable prognosis tumors, which can
then be used to help with the prognosis of tumours, to understand
why some tumors progress or regress and to discover genes that may
become drug targets (ie ones that are expressed only in unfavourable
tumors). This project was of interest to our family because of the
recurrence of Lilah's cancer when it wasn't expected, showing us the
significance of those genetic markers (biomarkers) and the need to
understand them better.
The second project is part of a larger effort which is being funded
by the Canadian Stem Cell Network Centre for Excellence to find
drugs that will kill cancer stem cells but will not be toxic to
normal cells. This work is of particular importance as none of the
current drugs that are used in chemotherapy were designed for
particular use in children, which caused us particular concern given
the age of our daughter while she was in treatment (3 1/2- 8 months
old).
Our funding has enabled the research team to obtain a $700,000/3
year grant from the Network in partnership with our friends at The
James Fund and, in particular, is funding a postdoctoral fellow to
lead the project in Dr. Kaplan's lab. The larger project is a
collaboration between 14 Canadian scientists and involves exposing
the neuroblastoma stem cells to libraries of some 50,000 drugs and
chemicals. |
