Recurrent Medulloblastoma

Swifty to Fund Breakthrough Research in Preventing Medulloblastoma

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At Swifty, we take recurrent medulloblastoma personally. That’s the kind of cancer that took founder, Michael Gustafson’s life – and it’s also a cancer with one of the lowest survival rates.When medulloblastoma recurs, doctors have no established treatment plan for patients. None.

We’re looking to change that. So each year, Swifty invests its research grant awards specifically to improve outcomes for children who have recurrent medulloblastoma. Here are the grants we’ve made to date:

 

2021 grants

Charles G. Mullighan, MBBS(Hons) MSc MD FRACP FRCPA
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Small molecule degraders for targeting transcription factor drivers of medulloblastoma and acute leukemias
Grant Award: $100,000
in collaboration with Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation

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2019 grants

Dr. Michael Taylor MD/PhD
The Hospital for Sick Kids
Post-therapy metostosis: facing the real challenge of medulloblastoma treatment
Grant Award: $495,000/3 years

Dr. Zulekha Qadeer, Phd.
University of California San Francisco
Targeting TGFb Pathways for Dependencies in Group 3 Medulloblastoma
Grant Award: $20,000
in collaboration with Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation

Dr Rosalind Segal, MD/PhD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Targeting symmetric division in pediatric cancers
Grant Award: $30,000
in collaboration with Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation

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2018 grants

Dr. Marc Symons – Dr. Symons explains the project
Feinstein Institute for Medical Research – North Shore
De-escalation of Radiotherapy for Medulloblastoma by a Novel DNA Damage Checkpoint Inhibitor
Grant Award: $25,000
in collaboration with Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation

Shannon Wong-Michalek (Mentor) Dr. William Weiss
University of California Berkeley
Exploring synthetic lethality of one-carbon metabolism genes and mTORC1 inhibition in MYCN amplified Medulloblastoma
Grant Award: $5,000
in collaboration with Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation

Medulloblastoma in the Mountains Research
A three-day scientific program featuring renowned Canadian and international medulloblastoma researchers, including over 50 high-quality oral presentations selected from submitted abstracts.
Grant Award: $20,000

Project Open DIPG
Project Open DIPG is a collaborative research effort by the Pacific Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Consortium (PNOC) and the Children’s Brain Tumor Tissue Consortium(CBTTC). It embodies a “team science” strategy – pairing CBTTC’s approach to tissue sample collection, genomic sequencing and data analysis on the CAVATICA platform with PNOC’s clinical trial efforts. By sharing data openly, Project Open DIPG will help the research community more quickly identify and develop personalized treatment strategies for DIPG and other types of pediatric brain tumors.
Grant Award: $75,000

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2016-2017 grants

Dr. Eric Hutton Raabe, MD/PhD & Dr. Barbara Slusher, PhD Dr. Raabe Explains the Project
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Pre-clinical Testing of Novel Glutamine Metabolic Inhibitors in MYC-driven Medulloblastoma
Grant Award: $25,000  Project Publication
in collaboration with Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation

Melanie Vincent, PhD
University of Colorado Denver, Aurora, CO
Targeting Eya2 to Inhibit c-Myc Driven Medulloblastoma Tumor Progression
Brain Tumor\Medulloblastoma
Grant Award: $25,000
in collaboration with Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation

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2014-2015 grants

The Hospital for Sick Children
Heterogeneity Amongst Metastases in Children with Medulloblastoma: Focusing on the Real Problem
2015 Grant Award: $120,000

The Hospital for Sick Children
Investigating the Biological Diversity of Metastatic Medulloblastoma
Grant Award $50,000

Helen Devos Children’s Hospital Foundation
Targeting Medulloblastoma Through Individualized Therapeutics
Grant Award $50,000

By sponsoring efforts like the ones above, Swifty is empowering recurrent medulloblastoma research – and moving us closer to better outcomes for our children. But it can’t happen without your support.